Me: Hey Everyone!

Mai: She has a new chapter already. You should all be proud

Naru: What? For actually getting something productive done?

Mai: Naru that was mean!

Me: No mai, It's true. I have barely done anything at all and I have tons I should and should be doing *sigh*

Mai: Fine. Oh yeah, Shellsan doesn't own Ghost Hunt

Me: Enjoy~

"Lin, Naru?" Mai asked, subtly pinching herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

Naru and Lin both nodded.

"I thought you guys were in England?" she inquired, turning back to what she was doing.

"BSPR recently got a rather difficult case request. My father proposed that I ask my old team if they would like to play a part in it" Naru explained as he watched her work.

Mai really hadn't changed much over the years. Her hair had grown out slightly and she had developed more noticeable curves but for the most part, she was the same. At least from what he could tell.

Mai nodded as she placed the croissants on a serving tray. "So then what are you doing here? Why not just call?" she asked.

"We're here on business for the next few days so we thought we would ask everyone while we were. Takigawa was the one who picked us up from the airport and suggested we come here because everyone meets up here."

Sighing, Mai turned around glancing at Lin and Naru, "that's fine and all and I can't blame you or anything because you didn't know. But you" she stated giving a certain monk a pointed look, "are well aware that I have a café to run."

Said man looked at her sheepishly. "Well you know, it's not like you're going to be going anywhere you weren't already planning on going… and Michelle can take care of the shop" Bou-san gulped.

Rolling her eyes, she exhaled slowly to stop herself from yelling at the elder. "Bou-san, I suggest you take Naru and Lin outside, sit down and wait for the others while I finish setting up before I open in half an hour."

For a moment, Bou-san thought of talking back but one look at Mai clearly said that it was not a question, but a demand.

Nodding, the monk left the kitchen, Naru and Lin following after him.

Once they were gone, Mai allowed herself to sigh in relief while the lights around her flickered.

'Damn it Naru. Why couldn't you have waited until I was ready before you spoke to me?' Mai wondered, breathing shallowly while leaning on the counter. It took all of her being not to collapse into tears. She had tried to get over the man, she really had. But nothing would work; no matter what she tried she couldn't let him go.

His words from years ago still rung in her head. She held no malice towards him, only sadness and the wish that she couldn't have been there to show him that he wasn't a replacement for Gene.

Getting a hold of herself, Mai stood up, breathing back to normal. The lights stopped flickering and the room was back to how it once was.

She moved around the kitchen getting the last of the things read before placing them on trays and carrying them out to the counters. Carefully she placed them in the display case and dusted her hands off.

Happy with how the shop looked, she checked the time and saw that she didn't need to open for another ten minutes. Walking out from behind the counters, Mai heard the bell go off and turned to see the others come in one by one.

"Morning" she said to the gang.

Ayako smiled giving Mai a hug "Morning. How are you?" she questioned.

Mai rolled her eyes, "as fine as ever".

Nodding in approval, Ayako pulled away from the hug.

This was repeated with both John and Masako.

Yasu however, could not stand being so dull and proceed to appear out of no-where jumping on her. Mai groaned as she felt the wind knocked out of her slightly as she struggled to keep her balance.

"Yasu!" she cried out exasperated, "It's too early in the morning for this".

He simply laughed. "It's never too early to hug my dear Mai-chan!" he said before noticing Bou-san sitting at the table with Naru and Lin.

"And to what do we owe he pleasure of those gentlemen?" he inquired curiously.

Sighing Mai grumbled about annoying best friends and it being seriously too early in the morning for this kind of thing.

It was also at this moment that the rest of them noticed the two extra men who had been conversing with Bou-san until they came in.

Getting off of the still grumpy Mai, Yasu proceeded to drag her over to the table.

"Mai did you know that Lin and Naru are sitting at a table with my beloved?" he demanded, pretending to be jealous as he placed his arms around Bou-san neck 'protectively'.

The monk groaned at him, trying to un-wrap his arms from around his neck.

"Seriously man, stop it. You're creeping me out."

Placing a hand to his heart, Yasu feigned hurt, going over to Mai and dramatically pretending to cry on her shoulder before pouting when Mai didn't play along –much to the relief of Bou-san.

"Awww Mai how could you leave me hanging" Yasu complained earning himself a whack on the head as Ayako had enough of his shenanigans.

Turning to the amused pair she raised a questioning eyebrow. "So to what do we owe the pleasure?" Ayako asked, mimicking Yasu's earlier question and effectively drawing attention towards the pair.

Masako and John looked over curiously, also wondering why they were here.

"Before all of that, who wants tea?" Mai inquired in advance of the conversation that would surely take place.

A chorus of "yes please" re-sounded the room apart from Lin who simply gave a curt nod of agreement.

Quickly, the girl left the room and began brewing the tea for the gang of people waiting for her. While waiting for the water to boil, she checked the time.

"Damn" she muttered noticing that once this batch of tea was done she would have to open up.

As soon as the tea boiled, Mai let it steep before taking it out to everyone else. It seemed like Naru had just finished explaining what was going on as approached the table.

"Here's your tea guys. Feel free to sit around but I have work to do" she stated.

Yasu pouted, moving to slink an arm around her shoulder, "Oh come one, can't you just open up a little late for us?"

Rolling her eyes she gave him a firm look, "I'm not closing my business up for an extra amount of time because of some unexpected company. This is why we inform people when we are going to be visiting. It's common courtesy."

Turning she gave a disapproving look at Lin and Naru before moving away from Yasu and changing the sign on the door from 'closed' to 'open'.

~TiMe SkIp BeCaUsE nO oNe WaNtS tO hEaR aBoUt MaI's BoRiNg WoRk DaY~

It had surprised Mai when the others had stuck around throughout the whole time she was working, presumably to figure things out about how their trip to England was going to work.

Cleaning off her hands, she made her way over to the table which everyone had been occupying all day.

"So what have you guys been talking about?" she asked, pulling up a chair and collapsing onto it.

"Deciding who's going to go with Naru for the case in England." John responded, "We just need to know if you're going to come."

"I don't know… I have a lot of things I need to get done and this shop is my responsibility" Mai reasoned looking around at the others slightly unsure of what to do.

Yasu pushed up his glasses causing them to glint playfully. "But Mai-chan, it'll be like leaving early. It's not like its long until we'll be going to England anyway."

The girl shot him a glare huffing in annoyance clearly not wanting to disclose such information.

Naru raised an eyebrow at this. "You're coming to England?" he questioned.

"Well that's where Cambridge is" she retorted.

Naru and Lin both stared at her in shock.

"You're going to Cambridge?" Lin queried.

Yasu gave a smirk as he watched her turn away blushing. Mai didn't intend on them finding out about this anytime soon. She knew that there was a chance she would see them once in England but this was not part of her plans.

"That's right, both Yasu and Mai and attending Cambridge next semester" Ayako informed, obviously proud about how far Mai had come.

Naru however smirked at the new knowledge, "So you finally grew some brain cells".

"You stupid JERK!" she shouted, taking the bait.

"Your insults haven't changed so I wonder if you really did get smarter" he pondered evidently trying to see how many rises he could get out of her. It had been about year after all.

"Would you feel better if I insulted you in English then you damn narcissist?"

Naru blinked in shock at the unexpected change in language.

"When did you learn to speak English?" he inquired. Last time he saw her she could barely say hello but right now she was speaking in fluent, not to mention perfect, English.

Mai scoffed, "I'm going to Cambridge, in London, where they speak English. How am I supposed to learn anything if I can't speak the language?"

Across the table Bou-san was beginning to get annoyed though, unable to keep up with the conversation seeing as he and was the worst of all of them on the subject with Ayako knowing enough to say greet but not enough to withhold a conversation.

Everyone else was having no difficulties what-so-ever keeping up. It was a necessity for Masako to know English for business purposes, John's first language was Australian English, Naru was brought up in England, Lin had English as his second language, Japanese being his third and finally Yasu was also going to attend Cambridge meaning he was well aware of how to speak English too.

"Would you speak in Japanese for crying out loud!"

Me: And so that is it for the new chapter. What did you guys think?

Mai: Please leave a review in the box below!

Naru: Saying how much it sucks

Me: Hey! Just because I don't do anything productive doesn't mean you can criticise my work. It's 4:30 in the morning!

Mai: I think I'll go take them away before they destroy something… *hears crash*

Yasu: TOO LATE!