Ghost Hunt – Timepiece I: The Inferno

Sitting on a wood and cloth folding chair, Mai sips on a virgin strawberry daiquiri under a large umbrella stuck down into the sandy beach. It's been a while since the gang been to the beach. This, however, was another case. Mai watches as Bou-san (Takigawa Houshou – Bou literally means "Monk"), Ayako (Matsuzaki Ayako), John (John Brown), Masako (Hara Masako) and Yasuhara Osamu dragged Naru down to the beach on the island of Anguilla. The Lunaria Villa overlooking a small cliff is approximately 28,000 square feet with numerous bathrooms and bedrooms.

Mai has on a small ivory floral print summer dress on her with a pair of sunglasses on top of her head. On her feet was a pair of Bamboo Ringo Chestnut Slide sandals. She looks as if she was working as a supermodel on the beach. She is a super idol with modelling, movie and stage work, but she is just relaxing at this time with her family and friends.

Mai: This… is one heck of a life…

Miyuki: I know right?

Miyuki is sitting on the opposite side of the table on a similar folding chair, sipping on an actual Purple Rain cocktail mixed from vodka, lemonade, Blue Curaçao and grenadine. Apparently, Miyuki is not affected by consciousness and sensation altering substances. It's weird, but she cannot get drunk nor get knocked out by chloroform. On the positive side, she would not get hangovers, knocked out from alcohol, nor get drugged up and abducted. On the negative end of the spectrum… painkillers, sedatives and things that would help her through injuries are completely useless.

Mai: I still can't figure out why you can't get drunk. I'm mean, seriously, you are underage and you can drink everyone under the table without any repercussions and walk away without a single hint that you even drank alcohol in the first place.

Miyuki: As good as it sounds; remember the injuries that required surgical removal of foreign objects and other things? I may be able to suck up to pain, but you remember how much I whimpered during the operation. Seriously, those sedatives and painkillers don't even work on me. I can't even get drunk if I wanted to. People would say I'm missing out one of the finer things in life…

Naru is dunked into the waters by Bou-san, Ayako and Yasuhara while Masako and John looked absolutely embarrassed about something.

Mai: Huh? Where's Lin-san and Madoka? I thought they would… well, at least, Madoka would join in…

Mai places the drink in her hand down onto the table and brings up her laptop and opens it. Typing several things into the laptop, she opens the internet and goes to the fanfiction website. Going over several things she frowns.

Mai: For some reason, people like see me get hurt… there's so many stories about how "Naru" the obnoxious "knight in black clothing" has to save me from things. Even if I AM a trouble magnet, I don't get THAT much attention…

Miyuki: Let me take a look…

Miyuki put down her drink as Mai handed her the laptop. Miyuki scrolled around and looked at other pages.

Miyuki: …Wow.

Mai: See? Geez everyone wants me to get hurt to promote romance and plot.

Miyuki: Let's see… you're hurt severely here, dead here… oh my, how many of these are there?

Mai: That hurts.

Mai pouts and picks up her drink, taking one long sip.

Miyuki: I just noticed some really unlucky situations for you as well… Red Light District? Delinquents? Really? Oh, a lot of people really likes changing people's eye color and hair colors a lot. It seems we will go with the canon artwork and anime colors. This means…

Mai interrupts Miyuki's musings with a wave of her hand.

Mai: Just go search up the colors yourself if you don't believe us. Ah, one more thing, the canon of volume of the manga, at the end of the Ghost Hunt series, Naru didn't leave me crying and confused. The conversation was closed fairly happily. This means I was not crying my heart out, unlike what people rather liked. Although I was hurt, it wasn't that bad that I start losing my voice, start cutting, get bad nightmares… and yeah all that stuff. It just wasn't that bad. Hm… anything else…?

Miyuki: You forget that John as the same birthday as you.

Mai: Meh, whatever. Let's just enjoy this vacation and let Isa-chan and Edefelt-san work.

Miyuki: Ah, you forgot to mention the dream in this chapter is in First Person Perspective.

Chapter V – Trump and Cross (Case Closed)

]~-~._.~-~[

After explaining and informing the school and students involved with the case (other than the four unusual students as she has figured out what is going on and how to deal with it), the brunette finally finished all the preparation needed for the last exorcism and fell back into the large couch near the other couch where Miyuki lay, sleeping off the injuries.

"Fyuuuun…."

Mai turns at the soft and cute sound emitted by the sleeping girl and smiles gently. She better be fine after resting for eighteen hours by the time it's eight in the morning tomorrow. The procedures and chants run through her mind as she goes over what needs to be done. She placed a written slip of paper near Miyuki and then put two pieces of some sort of cloth into her pocket.

There, that should do it. I hope Miyu-chan won't go ballistic after I pull this stunt…

Smiling to herself, Mai slowly nodded off into dream world.

-Astral Plane: The Unconscious-

"Well finally someone decides to show up."

Mai turns around in the field of flowers and giggles.

"Well, we are just about to finish off this case," Mai replies, "and there's nothing else left to do now that I've finished up the preparations for the final scene of this act…"

The Naru-look alike smiles warmly at her and asks her in a joking demeanor, "Since when did you get all romantic enough to refer to this as 'scenes' and 'acts'?"

"Pfft… I don't think romantic is the right term for this. Unless by romantic you mean, 'being reckless' again, then yeah I'm a romanticist."

Gene scoffs at her joke, "I don't see any problems with this strategy at this point in time. You are more capable of protecting yourself than before. But seriously, even though I know this strategy will be perfect, I doubt anyone around you still hanging about in the living world would appreciate you using yourself like this again."

The black-shirt, black-pants man places a hand under his chin and thinks for a moment.

"Then again," Gene continues, "at least you won't get yelled at much since my dear little brother isn't here to see you do this."

The brunette giggles, "he would definitely kill me for this, and then revive you just to kill you again for allowing me to do this."

The Davis twin sits down on the flower field, prompting Mai to do the same. The fields have not changed since the last time she was in her unconscious. The beautiful lake and the gazebo overlooking the lake were still there along with the bright, shining sun and the lovely blue skies. The girl notices something else in this place; there is a monument with many inset gems glittering on the rather exquisite piece of art.

"Hey… what's that?" Mai points at the monument that appeared in her unconscious.

"That," Gene replies in an approving manner, "is what you are wearing on yourself. It is the silver cross necklace you have around your neck. That necklace has a large amount of psionic power. I'm guessing it is a container for psychic energy. However, the large amount of psychic power seems to be limited to a single use and cannot be used until it has absorbed enough latent energy from the environment around it after being depleted."

Gene focuses on the monument, "yes… it's slowly releasing and taking in energy. I think you can draw up and use the energy in the pendant at will. "

"Hm…" Mai begins, "this is interesting. I think I can come up with a use for this. Also, this case has been going on long enough; I guess it's time for the final dream that connects everything…"

"Do you want me to do the honors?" Gene laughs lightly.

"Sure, why not."

At that, the boy picks Mai up and carries her bridal-style to the lake.

"By the way Mai," Gene suddenly speaks up, "you don't need to go easy on that spirit. It's already insane like several others you encountered already."

"I never thought about trying to save that spirit; it's already too corrupted to cleanse… even my intuition tells me it is impossible. Although I hate doing this, it's probably the only way now."

"Good," Gene replies with a smile, "at least you have matured to the point you won't get yourself hurt for no reason. Well, have a good trip~"

And then he drops her.

-Dreamscape-

I was going to go home when I saw a piece of paper fall out of my locker. Curious, I pick it up and inspect it. 'Please meet me at the storage shed behind the school building – Noboru'. What's up with this message? Does he like me? Hm… I don't know what's going on, but something tells me to avoid going there. But I really want to know what this is about… I make up my mind and start heading towards the back of the school.

As I gingerly step towards the school's back storage shed, I can feel something ominous about it… Maybe I should not have come here, but I'm already too curious about this and so I continue. As I continue on, I kept feeling something off about this place but I ignore it. At the door of the shed, I open it cautiously and see a ladder that descends down somewhere…

"Wha-"

Crack!

I black out after feeling something strike the back of my head. As I fell, my body turned around and before I completely blacked out, I saw Noboru with an evil slasher smile; strange… his eyes don't look like him at all… his pupils were slits… like a snake or something and glowing red eyes… …

I wake up feeling groggy and my head pounding like something split it open. I bring an arm up to clutch at my head, but I could not. My eyes widen and I felt that I can't move my arms or my legs. There's something tying to the… the ground? Yes, the ground. I'm lying face up so I think this is the ground.

"Hehehe… it's time for the second last sacrifice..."

My head whips to the sound. It's Noboru… it's the same glowing red slit eyes I saw before I was knocked out. Sacrifice? I'm sort of an occult nut so I think Noboru isn't acting himself and this is not going to end well for me. I remain silent with a defiant look on my face… I hope that it looks like that and I confirmed that I succeeded in making that face when not-Noboru scrunched up his face.

"So are you not afraid? Or did you simply give up?"

"Neither of the above," I retort, "Noboru. I thought that you would be strong enough to resist something like this. I can't believe I'm wrong."

A look of shock and understanding suddenly pass through his eyes and his left hand shoots up to his head as if he suddenly got a headache after I said that.

"You… you… You annoy me. I'll just shut you up right now even though you deserve to be tortured."

Shoot. His right hand went up and straight down, plunging the knife he is holding right into my heart. The last thought that flowed through me was… 'Oh no… that backfired. If only I had the power to help him…'

-Astral Plane-

"Itai!"

Mai springs up from the couch she slept on and holds her head. Rubbing her head, she moans in pain as the dream left her senses. That dream was slightly different to her as the victim she relived the dream through was not as scared as the previous ones.

That was completely different than the previous two dreams. Wait… what the?

The room was in a white-on-black color and is see through like a 3D building plan. There a few wisps floating around, but Mai could see that there was an "empty" spot, so to speak, below the storage shed.

Ugh… falling out of a dream and into the astral plane.

A moment later, she notices someone carrying something into the shed.

Huh?

Mai rubs her eyes and inspects the moving object.

Hey! That's Noboru from my dream! And he's carrying… that's my body!

Horrified, Mai realizes that the man has targeted her. Right now, she's astral projecting and that leaves her completely unprotected. Stopping herself from panicking, she glances over to the clock. 6:20AM.

Wait… this is perfect. I thought that this happened too soon, but it looks like we can actually use this opportunity to finish this once and for all instead of waiting until morning. Miyu-chan should have fully recovered by now; I should go wake her up so she can help.

Mai, being only a spirit at the moment, goes over to the sleeping form of Miyuki and the room returns to normal. The brunette now is a little transparent and glows at the edges of her spiritual body. She goes to tap the black-haired girl on the cheek, which instantly wakes the said girl up due to the way she done so. Being a sensitive psychic, when a spirit touches Miyuki, her body automatically reacts to the contact. With that, Miyuki opens her eyes and meets Mai's eyes close to her.

"…Mai…? Why are you astral projecting…?"

The brown-haired girl motion to the room and Miyuki follows the motions.

"...Looks like you hit the jackpot."

"I hate to admit it, but yep. I won the grand prize. But, I have a plan and rather awesome one too."

Miyuki tilts her head slightly, "I'm fully recovered, but what do you need me to do then?"

"Follow me to the area I was taken from and hide near the area, supress your power so that the perpetrator won't detect you. This time, I want you to be 'Plan B' if this plan of mine fails. If my plan doesn't fail, then you can be the clean-up crew."

Miyuki sighs, "You're always try things on your own. But fine, I'll go with your plan for now."

After a moment of preparations from Miyuki and a self-check for healing progress, Mai, well at least her soul, moves toward where her body was taken, with Miyuki following closely, but quietly behind. Miyuki has several coins at the ready in her left hand and a talisman in her right. Soon, the two of them reach the shed and Miyuki extinguishes her psychic power and puts on a pair of infrared-enabled shades to track everything. After heading into the shed and going down the stairs, Miyuki quickly moves with Mai and after several twists and turns, they come to a halt behind a small outgrowth of stone that opens up into a larger cavern. With one look, Miyuki immediately notices white powdery lines on the ground in a circle and a pentagram at the center… and Mai's unconscious body tied down on the pentagram. There are black candles lit at each corner of the star along with some sort of strange runes surrounding the area. Someone appeared from a hidden doorway with a several ceremonial knives and the person walks up to Mai's body. He, yes, Miyuki notices that the person is male, places the knives down and starts stroking the brunette's face, moving down to her over her chest, then down to her exposed thighs. Miyuki's face is now a scarlet, ready to blow up at any time but Mai's spirit put a hand on her shoulder.

Mai, her spirit, moves right into where Miyuki is and possesses the black haired girl for a moment so they can communicate in the mind without speaking out loud.

"Yes I know we both want to kick that guy into the next week. It's MY body he's touching but I also know that he's not going to remember anything after this case is over. It's an abnormally strong spirit that possessed him. It's not him in control. Let me handle this."

With that, Mai's spirit disappears from Miyuki and returns to her body.

After a moment, Mai's body twitches and the girl starts opening her eyes slowly. At this, the person stops feeling her up and he steps back slightly and takes one of the ceremonial knives before smiling in an evil way.

"You're not Noboru, are you?" Mai coughs out.

The red eyes narrow slightly but return to their full, demonic glory.

"So you found out, but that doesn't help you out of being the sacrifice, I'm afraid. The last sacrifice was similar to you, she wasn't that afraid… or at least she did not show it."

"Did not expect you to release me anyways, but I would like to know one thing first."

The spirit scoffs, "because this is your last moments of life, I will gladly answer your questions."

From outside the cavern, Miyuki snickers inside her mind.

"Why did you kill so many girls? And why did you…" Mai nearly let out what she saw in her dreams but stops just short of it before the spirit catches on, "possess Noboru?"

The spirit misses her short pause and evilly answers her question with malevolent delight.

"Everyone dreams of eternity. So why wait? With you as the last sacrifice, I shall become immortal! Your second question, however, is far simpler than you'd expect: this boy, he discovered this altar and he stepped onto the circle, which then I came from… I should thank him for allowing me this chance… if that stupid Judge didn't kill off my first sacrifice in over five hundred years and I only needed two more. But it only delayed the inevitable."

The insane spirit licked his lips, "well, any other questions?"

Mai thought for a moment before another idea came to mind.

"If you don't mind… can you show me your real form?"

"Hehehe… you want to see who's going to devour you? Fine by me; you won't be able to get out of the straps anyways."

The body of Noboru collapsed and the insane, blood-splattered spirit came out. It looked like a beast headed man with claws on his hands and feet. In a way, he seemed to appear like a chimera but a really ugly and deformed one.

"So… are ready to become a part of me in the glorious immortal body?"

"Yeah… But first, you forgot one thing."

The silver pendant on Mai's neck glow and suddenly the girl is enveloped in a white aura that starts distorting the images of space around her and causes a heavy ringing sound. The room starts shaking and rumbling from the massive amount of power.

This hurts a lot… So this is how it feels to harness such power…

The spirit's eyes widen in shock. It tries to get back into the body but it is trapped by the vibrations and the immense psychic pressure. The spirit is now scared and agitated.

"W-What i-is this?! W-What are you doing?!"

The leather straps tying Mai to the ground snaps and she slowly gets up, the intense pressure further increasing. The candles are blown out while the powdery substance is flung out of the area.

"I-I'll tear your friends and family t-to shreds i-if you keep on doing w-what you are doing!"

Mai shakes her head and places her left over the right wrist, imitating her ex-boss's hand motion when she saw him do this. Instead of a shining golden glow of energy, a dark, pale bluish glow appears on her hands and grows in intensity. She slowly lifts her hands up over her head.

Careful… careful… I only have one shot at this…

From behind the cover, Miyuki looks shocked at what is occurring at the moment. She quickly gets over the shock, realizing the spirit might still be able to escape and so prepares to block off the all escape. Increasing her psychic energy, she steps out from the rocky outgrowth and forms a seal with her hands, tossing the coins into the air and keeping the talisman between her right index and middle finger.

The spirit screeches in fear and tries to flee, only to find Miyuki at the other side with a spirit barrier made around the entire area. The coins thrown by Miyuki strike the floor and the spirit screeches again, obviously terrified for his un-life.

"Karma's a Bitch."

Mai states out with a jaunty voice and brings her hand down, firing off the blast of psychokinetic power right at the spirit, which cries out in a deafening voice and is completely wiped out of existence once the blast strikes home, disintegrating the spirit completely.

A moment later, the cavern is silent. Miyuki groans and collapses; holding up a powerful barrier to prevent the area from collapsing and the spirit from escaping is extremely tiring. Mai falls to one knee, panting hard. Unlike Naru's Kikou from using Qigong, the energy is transferred from the pendant and manipulated by Mai instead of from inner energy. This means that she would not be in danger of adverse effects. Other than the pain from channeling the energy and the tiredness of using near-Naru-levels of psychokinesis, Mai won't fall dead from that.

"Geez… is that a gift from King Minos?"

Miyuki manages to pant out the question.

"Y-yeah," Mai stutters a bit, also trying to catch her breath, "the necklace he gave me can apparently store a massive amount of energy. It can be used but will take time to recharge after every use."

"I did not expect you to get a head start on manipulating PK like that," Miyuki observes, "it looks like you have a trump card from now on if all else fails."

"Yep, and I don't think I'm going to fall down dead by using it. Now I don't need to rely on the extremely unreliable psionic blasts that might not even work properly. Oh, by the way, "Mai reaches into her pocket and takes out the ring, "King Minos was going to give this to you."

"Hm," Miyuki reaches for the ring, but before her fingers touch it, a spark of lightning electrifies the contact point and both of them let out a yelp of surprise while flinching. The ring falls to the floor with a small clink. Another moment of quietness and the two of them stares at the ring. Miyuki has a weird look on her face that Mai notes but dismisses it as exhaustion getting to her.

"Uh…" Miyuki begins, "I think you should keep the ring for now. I think you charged the ring with the PK you just fired."

"I guess," Mai replies, "okay, I'll give it to you later on. Remind me to do so, or else I'll forget."

"Hai, hai." Miyuki affirms and gives her a mock salute while the two of the burst out in giggles.

Looking around, the brunette notes the cavern and the altar. It seems to be from long ago and it is certainly worn down quite a bit. The onyx-haired girl beside the former leaves the fallen coins where they are to block out any more mishaps.

"Finally, now I can get some proper sleep," Mai yawns.

"It's a little late for today," Miyuki glances at her watch, "it's already 7:00AM."

"Ugh… that sucks. Oh well, case closed. Let's go to report and close this investigation."

"Roger that," Miyuki smiles, "let's get outta here."

"Before that…" Mai stops for a moment, remembering the fallen boy who's still unconscious, "we need to bring Noboru along and there's also something I need to check."

The brunette investigator strides over to a cracked rock and moves it aside. Miyuki raises an eyebrow as the moved stone reveals a bloody student corpse. The two of them look at each other with a sad expression before leaving it alone to report to the students and have them contact the authorities. They carry Noboru's body out of the area and into their base, letting him rest on one of the couches while they worked on closing the case.

While finishing the case, Mai suddenly gets a jolt of realization.

"Hey Miyu-chan, Did you notice that there was not a lot of spirits around the school? If the killings have been occurring through the last five hundred years, then there should be trapped spirits around, especially the newer incidents."

"From what I take, you said that the spirit drank the victims' blood right?" Miyuki replies with a question.

"Yes, but what's that about?"

"It's not just a part of the ritual," Miyuki explains, "I've come across similar 'immortality' rituals and I'm guessing the spirit consumed the sacrifices' souls through drinking blood as the medium."

"Ugh," Mai retches lightly, "that horrible."

"Yes, yes it is…" Miyuki has a distant look on her face, but the other girl is too deep in thought to notice the black-haired girl's body language. The two of them continued working, having breakfast in between before finishing up the last portion of the write up.

-Three hours later-

With the case files and information fully typed up and filed away, the girls meet with the student council and the supervising teacher after they've gotten the machines they have put out packed and sent away by Miyuki's butler Charles. They explained what was going on and the other problem that had occurred and how it affected the school. Through the details, the listeners were horrified and awed by the incident and are now all happy that the case is solved. They lamented the loss of the last student that died but are grateful no more casualties were inflicted. When the possessed student awoke, just as Mai predicted, he could not remember anything that happened during the months he was possessed. Everyone is glad to finally have him back and that's that.

"Thank you for solving this case, we can now all breathe easy," Shizuka bows in thanks, along with the teacher and the other student council members.

"It's nothing too serious," Mai replies, "we cannot leave any harmful thing untouched."

"Besides," Miyuki adds, "this is a school meant for students to grow, not get killed by some lunatic obsessed with immortality."

"How much will this cost?" the teacher asks, a little nervous about the price.

The two investigators look at each other and giggles.

"Only as much as you are willing to pay for," Mai says in a business-like tone, imitating her narcissistic ex-boss's demeanor, which makes the other investigator giggle at the reference.

The teacher brightens and writes out a check in her hand and places it in front of Miyuki. The onyx-haired girl takes a look and her eyes widen.

"Isn't this… a little much?" Miyuki gapes.

"Think of it is an appreciation for what you've done for us, no, the entire school."

Mai smiles, "thank you then, we'll probably visit later on to make sure there's nothing else going on."

"Um…"

The two investigators turn to the student council president, Shizuka.

"The student council has been thinking, since apparently the paranormal does in fact exist quite literally, we thought that it would really be dangerous to everyone… If it does not drag you two down, in later cases you may have, we, the student council would like to assist you in information gathering since it seems to help you out."

Mai and Miyuki both smile.

"We do appreciate the gesture of kindness," Mai tilts her head a little, "but won't you guys be overworked?"

That's when the student council members have a smile of their own, except the disciplinary head Kei. The last guy has a small smirk reminiscent of Mai's ex-boss's own smirk, which made Mai raise an eyebrow at the sight.

Kei responds to this, "Don't overlook the student council's information gathering abilities, we have three brilliant hackers in the room and two of us are in scholarship programs in the investigation course. We can do the mundane investigation probably as good as regular detectives or even better if we put our mind to it."

"Besides," the vice president Sana adds, "we usually get bored because we do things a little too quickly and perfectly. We could use the spare time to do something helpful."

"Then I hope you four won't mind having a paycheck for your help," Mai giggles, "and I'm not taking a 'no' for your answer if you chose to work for us. Don't worry about the money; we have a good sponsor that supports us when we are on these cases."

Who are the two of us, of course, the two girls think simultaneously.

After a bit of squabbling, exchanging contacts and farewells, the two girls that successfully completed this case walks out of the building, sent off by the student council and the supervising teacher.

"We'll contact you if anything comes up or if we just want to hang out, is that alright?" Mai states with a happy smile.

"Yep," Shizuka replies, just as happy, "we'll be looking forward to it. Good bye and stay well~"

The two of them rounded a few corners before reaching a limo in a parkade not far from the school. Miyuki's butler waited patiently for the two of them. Charles Dornez, Miyuki's butler, is a thin Englishman with black hair worn back in a small pony tail. He has storm grey eyes that have a bluish tint to it. Charles is old yet athletic, he wears a standard butler attire for English nobleman with white gloves and he has wears a monocle over his left eye, making him further unique. To Miyuki, Charles is her father figure ever since that time. In private, the two of them are inseparable, caring for each other as if they were real blood related family. In public, they remained professional but sometimes, things can just get the better of them.

"Ah, mademoiselle Docelia, you have returned with your friend," the butler speaks in an elegant baritone voice, using Miyuki's French last name instead of her Japanese one.

"The case is successfully completed, I'm I right?"

Miyuki's full name is Rachael M.S. Docelia. She is actually half French, half Japanese, explaining the mysteriously sparkling blue eyes she has. Her father named her Rachael while her mother gave her the Japanese name she has. In European regions, she would use Rachael Docelia as her name while using Shimiya Miyuki in oriental regions. The butler, being of European descent, continues to call her by her by the English-French name as he is use to it.

"Yes Charles, we have completed this case. Please take us to the Astarte Villa in Shibuya please," Miyuki immediately declares, "we will have to prepare for tonight's Docelia Charity Fundraiser Ball."

"Yes, of course," Miyuki's father-figure bows, "we will be off, please make yourself comfortable."

Charles opens the passenger door and the two girls head into the car. Once seated, the butler closes the door and heads to the front passenger seat. After a moment, he instructs the chauffeur to take them to Aria Villa in Shibuya.

Unlike Mai, Miyuki was born to one of the wealthiest families along with one of the most traditional families. Her late father, Gustav Docelia, was the CEO of Docelia Inc., founder and owner of the mega-corporation chain found globally and in most developed countries. Her late mother, Shimiya Rin, is the heiress of an ancient clan with more than enough influence to topple the current government. The clan's history is shrouded in mystery but everyone treats them as royalty. Hell, even the current prime minister and royal family show much respect to them. Even though this is continuing on, Miyuki doesn't seem to like at all. The mega-corporation is now run by Charles' brother Walter, whom is especially loyal to the family and has a soft spot for Miyuki. Eventually, the company will be given back to Miyuki as the will had stated. Miyuki blatantly refuses to take part but had to comply… except she found a loophole and let Walter take about 80% of the company so that the will is still upheld. On her mother's side, the tradition is not really strict as it has been modernized; however, she still needs to take on dance, martial arts, and tea ceremony.

The girls start discussing about what to wear at the ball at night and the limo drives on.

-Rome, Fiumicino Airport (FCO)-

[January 3rd – 8:22AM]

"Hey! We're late! You do know we were supposed to be here an hour ago, right? Luckily, the plane had a delayed boarding time due to air traffic being overly congested around here or we could've missed our flight!"

The woman was practically shouting at a man rushing to the check in counter of the airport. The woman is has a very nice figure with long, reddish-brown – more red than brown – hair that flows downward with a couple of bangs over her right eye and framing the upper left side of her face. Her eyes were a brown that could easily get mistaken as red in a certain quality of light. Wearing pretty much only designer products from top to down, the woman is very wealthy indeed. She is currently towing a large chestnut brown two-wheel luggage bag behind her.

"Well I'm sorry the alarm clock wasn't working in the morning! I called down to the room services the first time and they brought another malfunctioning clock."

The man replies with a sarcastic tone that does not seem to have the same edge to most sarcastic remarks. This man has medium length light brown hair tied at the back with a ponytail. If you see it from afar, it seems to be a dark, husky blond instead. His dark brown eyes glint with amusement as the two of the bicker. Wearing cool-looking clothing that has the hood area lined with faux fur, wearing a pair of shades and a hat, the man looks like a musician. If that doesn't cut it; he is also carrying a large instrument case, a guitar or a bass probably while towing a smaller deep mauve luggage bag.

"It's not like we'll be late for John and jou-chan's birthday celebration," the man says with a hint of longing, probably slight home-sickness.

"I hope she'll like the souvenirs we brought as her present," the woman sighs, "even though I know she'll be happy with the thought, I really want to get her something she would like."

After several minutes of check in procedures and receiving the tickets, the two people went to a bench and sat down while talking about the incidents that brought the group together. The intercom then announced:

"Grazie per l'attesa. I passeggeri in partenza per Tokyo, Aeroporto Internazionale di Narita, testa al gate di imbarco. Ci scusiamo per il ritardo."

It's finally time for a reunion. I wonder what Mai is up to nowadays… We kind of lost contact with her other than the phone calls… I hope she is alright. I also wonder how she is able to use the Astarte Villa for the two birthday celebrations… isn't it owned by the Docelia family?

Those were the thoughts of both the man and woman as they entered the boarding gate.

-Sydney, Sydney Airport (SYD)-

[January 3rd – 10:30AM]

"Well, that's the end of that."

The youngest Catholic ex-bishop in history, also authorized for high level exorcisms is sitting on a bench in the airport with his luggage after an especially frustrating exorcism. The vengeful spirit was flying around, possessing people and escaping after every attempt at an exorcism. The spirit wasn't doing much but annoying the family and causing property damage. This did not escalate, but having something invisible throw things at you and taking away utensils when you need it is something that you can't have as an everyday occurrence. After a wild goose chase around the house, the spirit was finally caught and cleansed, but not before the exorcist took a bucket of cold water to the face. Soon after, he went home and changed before heading to the airport.

It was three months since his elevation to the status of Bishop, but he had declined it as he wished to leave the priesthood but still keep his faith and maintaining authorization for performing exorcisms. The archbishop had noted the friendly yet powerful and charismatic nature of this young man, along with his work ethic, success and leadership. This lead one thing to another and eventually the current Cardinal and the current Pope of the Catholic Church found out about this. In accordance, another month later and the young exorcist was given his wish, not before being promoted to bishop first. The letter of proof and certification has allowed the young exorcist to maintain a rank equal to that of a bishop but does not require the vows in priesthood.

The young man has bright blond hair with a pair of blue eyes, signifying his Aryan descent. Although he looks young, he is already twenty years old, turning twenty-one in two days. Yes, it is the same day as when the one who brought and connected SPR together also has her birthday. The girl in question had contacted him about a celebration two months earlier and he readily agreed to it. To have a double birthday celebration would be pretty unique and happy for everyone around.

Still on the bench, waiting for the commercial airplane to arrive, the blond man, wearing a green sleeved, white sweater along with a pair of khaki cargo pants sighs, thinking about the things that will happen soon. If SPR were to reunite and have more cases, the man is sure that the girl would get into so much trouble; everyone's going to scramble after her like moths to a bright flame. He quietly laughs a bit, before taking a look at his watch. There's only a bit of time left before the aircraft begins boarding.

I wonder how this reunion will go, it has not been a full year yet it feels like a life time gone from my friends in Japan… It's really interesting to have two birthdays at the same time. The event will be held at the Astarte Villa, the large one that is owned by the Docelia family. How did Mai ever get access to that luxurious mansion?

With those thoughts in mind, the young man gets off the bench just in time for the boarding announcement.

"Attention please, passengers departing to Japan, Narita International Airport, please head to gate A15."

It's time to go….

-Aomori, Aomori Airport (AOJ)-

[January 3rd – 10:57AM]

So tiring, this new TV series is poorly planned out. Seriously, the director is completely clueless on how to pace things and either making things too rushed or too slack. Ugh. I'm starting to feel like I should've stayed in Tokyo with Mai instead of taking this offer. At least she's better company than that perverted rat of a cameraman that was staring at me at times…

A purple with white checked kimono-clad girl with a slightly disproportionate Hime-Cut black hair with light grey eyes stood prim and poised, waiting in line of the business section of the boarding gates. The girl is petite and elegant, like a Japanese doll. After leaving for the world tour, the girl had been to Athens in Greece, California in the United States and several other cities before arriving back in Japan, finishing in Aomori. Luckily, the last three days were not as harsh, or she would've fainted in the middle of a walk even without spirits bothering her.

Fixing her hair a bit, the doll-like girl glances around before moving forward in the lineup. A minute later and she reaches the counter attendant, whom checks her pass and confirms her ticket. Nodding, the attendant lets her pass and the petite grey-eyed doll does so.

Getting into her seat, the kimono clad girl lets out a sigh unlike her elegant poise. Closing her eyes, she thinks about the past half an year and what will happen next. It has not been all fun and games the past year, but it satisfies her curiosity and her need to help others even though most of it is about money when you're doing it as a TV Medium.

I wonder how everyone is doing, are they okay? It's been half an year now and I've kept close contact with Mai. We've all been invited to her birthday party, towing John into the celebration as well. She's famous in Japan now and she has a new friend with her, climbing the social ranks. I also wonder how everyone else is going to react to her now… fuu fuu… it's going to be awesome… Oh, wait a minute; Mai has an alias for this so maybe she won't reveal her status that early. That just makes things much sweeter~

As the plane takes off, the TV medium nods off into a peaceful sleep.

-Wales, Cardiff Airport (CWL)-

[January 3rd – 11:01AM]

"Hey! Yasuhara! You didn't steal the equipment bag again did you?"

The said student, with black hair and dark grey eyes, is currently laughing out loud at the moment. And no, he was not the one who stole the other student's camera. However, as the student council president and the representative of his school, he knows what had happened.

One of the female students had pranked the male dormitory, snatching a few things and placing funny letters in the place of the items but not doing any harm. It was retaliation as the boys placed a stink bomb in the female dormitory first.

"By the way," Yasuhara replies, "this time, I'm not the one who did anything. By any chance, was the bag that contained camera you guys used to sneakily film the girl's dorms?"

"Eh," the voice in the middle of the pack of students, "yeah, it's that one… well, at least you don't have it."

"If you guys didn't prank the girls first, that would not have happened," Yasuhara says jubilantly, "however, I am impressed on how quickly the girls reacted. You guys didn't even notice until we've already reached the airport, unless…"

Just then a scream erupted from the girls' side.

Yasuhara laughs, "I'm guessing one of the girls just found a certain square with a certain rubber material in it... did you guys actually planted that in there?"

Geez… if only that happened at SPR… ah, speaking of SPR… that invitation to Mai-chan's birthday party seems interesting. It's being held at Astarte Villa, I wonder if she gotten a friend in the upper classes during this half an year. Ah well, now that we're going back, I can tease her all I want again. And my belooovved Takigawa as wel~l… hehehe…

With that last 'evil' thought, he gets back to work and assists the teachers at herding the boys and girls to the boarding gate.

-London, Heathrow Airport (LHR)-

[January 3rd - 11:30AM]

It is a rainy day in London. The overcast skies make everything seem to be in greyscale to a particular man dressed completely in black. This man's dark indigo eyes seem to shine with intelligence far beyond his age. His black hair is fairly short, with small fringes that frame the top sides of his face. His amazing looks would have attracted a lot of female attention if the air around him wasn't several degrees lower than normal and his face fixed in a glare.

Another man, one that is much taller is dressed in office wear, a white dress shirt underneath a greyish black vest with a pale red tie. Similarly greyish black dress pants with a pair of black leather dress shoes. His eyes are stormy grey with a head of black hair that droops downward over his face, covering much of his right side, including his right eye. Solemn and taciturn, the man shows little to no emotion until certain times, and this time is certainly a nice situation to show emotion.

"So," the taller man begins, "I do believe you received an invitation to her birthday party. You are going to attend, aren't you?"

"At least I would fit in," the scowling black dressed man replies, "you, on the other hand, received the invitation as well, and she would say that you and birthday parties look awkward together."

The taller man gives a small chuckle, "she definitely grew on you during that year."

"She grew on all of us," the shorter man corrects the taller one, "but that's not why I am especially annoyed right now."

Of course, it just had to be like that. The shorter man's teacher, the one with magenta hair and light magenta eyes, squealed when she received the invitation; and then she dragged the men to pick out presents.

She just had to pick out several bags of things to bring. Every time it's like this. We go do something out of the ordinary and more shopping comes up. Even mother wasn't that annoying. At least father didn't join in, or I would've run away on the plane first before anyone else noticed.

Sighing, the handsome young man takes out a black note book and holds up another small black vinyl box up, inspecting the object.

Even then, there may be a time we have to return to England for a case. Father warned us about a case that may need to be attended to if the others at the main (British) branch of SPR cannot handle it. I have gathered enough information about it for later on… Hm… I wonder, would Mai like this present? Maybe she'll…

The man stopped short at the thought.

Brilliant, just brilliant… First of all, I wonder what her answer will be this time… I sure did a number on her the last time I… whoa. I'm starting to sound like her. Did she grow on me THAT much?

Giving another sigh and suppressing his rampant thoughts, the young man signalled to the taller, older man next to him to start moving towards the boarding gate as he noticed the bobbing of magenta hair coming towards them. This will be another adventure, hopefully one that won't be too dangerous, he supposes.

Naru: So why do you think there are paranormal activities present in your home?

Naru is sitting in the lounge area, facing the current client, Minamoto Chelsea, a half-English, half Japanese women. Mai is sitting next to Naru, a little twitchy and fidgeting a little. Lin is on the opposite side of Mai, typing out notes with his laptop.

Chelsea: Well… there were things that seemed to be inexplicable by normal means… there has been cups and plates floating around in midair. Then those plates and cups started flying through the house, crashing into walls. But when they do hit the wall, they disappear and appear somewhere else, still flying straight into other things and repeating. After that, a sign with cake starting appearing from nowhere… and a large cube-like object with pink hearts on it fell onto the bed….

Naru: Mai, does that sound…

Mai: ...familiar? I guess…

Before Mai can finish her sentence, Isdefelt enters SPR looking frazzled and disgruntled.

Isdefelt: Question, did something steal my copy of the "Portal 3: Spirit Edition"? I've been looking for it for a time now.

The entire room stares at Isdefelt. Lin just coughs, stands up, and then goes to his office, closing the doors behind him.

Mai: …

Naru: …

Isdefelt: …what?

Mai's Learning Corner!

Mai is sitting on a table, holding a small book, reading through it while murmuring something.

Mai: Min'na-san!~ Welcome back to Mai's Learning Corner~

Mai: Today, there are not as many words that require explanations, only a few Japanese sound effects found in here.

Mai: First of all, ""Fyuuuun" is not an actual sound in Japanese. It is kind of made up but if you kind of took it as is in a Japanese accent, it is pretty cute to imagine a girl sleeping while letting out a sound like that.

Flipping over a page, Mai continues on before frowning.

Mai: Ah, here's a translation needed to be done. "Grazie per l'attesa. I passeggeri in partenza per Tokyo, Aeroporto Internazionale di Narita, testa al gate di imbarco. Ci scusiamo per il ritardo." This means "Thank you for waiting. Passengers departing for Tokyo, Narita International Airport, please head to the boarding gate. We apologize for the delay."

Flipping over another page, Mai clears her throat.

Mai: Here's another Japanese sound effect, "Fuu Fuu". This is a fairly strange laugh… some people call it "The evil chuckle in the back of the throat". I don't know if it's right or not, but it's sure creepy as hell unless it's done by someone like Miyu-chan.

Checking the book, Mai realizes that this time was short and clear, not many Japanese words needing clarification.

Mai: Well, that's it for toda…

Suddenly, Mai freezes up and looks around, she can tell that something's wrong; the temperature is dropping rapidly and now she can see her own breath. A little girl spirit suddenly materializes in the room, waving at the audience.

Mai: Okay. WHO LET THAT SPIRIT IN?!

The spirit flies out the door giggling with Mai chasing it with a broom taped with charms, the door slams shut after the two of them leaves the room.