Finding You:

Chapter 3:

"Mai, tea."

"In a minute," Mai called out and put the photo album that she was looking through aside.

Lin had not been exaggerating about being summoned for tea every half an hour. Six years ago, it had been every hour so it felt like all she did was boil the kittle. Maybe Naru had developed a caffeine addiction, she theorised as she waited for the water to reach the right temperature. He did always look marginally happier at the sight of her carrying a tea tray. Naturally the alternative explanation that he was happy to see her did not come to mind.

Once she had delivered the tea for the fifth time that morning she resumed looking through one of the photo albums that she had brought with her from her apartment. It was dated four years ago and seemed to be SPR themed as all the employees and Naru appeared in photos, but there were several blank spaces where there should be photos.

She walked over to Yasuhara's desk and showed him.

"Do you know what the missing photos were of?" she asked.

Her co worker took his time in answering. "We started a tradition of celebrating at a restaurant after each case was solved- that's where all of these photos were taken," he pointed at one. "That was the ramen place we went to after a simple case and this one is the sushi bar we went to after a really complex case- Naru was in a good mood after solving that one so we got all you can eat."

"Whose idea was it?"

"Yours, I think and we all agreed so Naru gave in eventually," he explained. "You always took photos as you wanted to document your family."

Mai smiled. Even at an older age she still thought of SPR as her family. However she still didn't have an answer about the missing photos so she pressed on.

"What do you think the missing photos could be off."

Yasuhara shrugged. "You may have accidently stuck in a duplicate and then removed it or they were blurred photos."

Mai was not convinced as there was what looked like a coffee spill across a page with a missing photo and the flow of the stain was ruined by a white rectangle where a photo should have been, indicating that the photos had been there for a while before they had been removed. Yet again something was being hidden from her and asking questions did not seem to do anything so she resolved to do some investigating.

On her way back to her desk her boss called out her name and the word "tea" did not follow.

"Mai."

She poked her head into his office to find him standing by the bookshelf looking thoughtful instead of sitting at his desk and glaring at her.

"Yes? You can't want more tea already..." Mai trailed off as she caught sight of the untouched cup on his desk.

"Bring me case file #26," he ordered.

Mai withdrew her head and frowned at the filing cabinets. Yasuhara had messed with her system completely, using numbers instead of sorting them alphabetically. However, to be fair she had some up with strange names for the cases, making it hard for anyone other than her to locate a case file.

She located #26 and drew out the file carefully and checked the date. The case had occurred when she was 18. She was about to open it when Naru interrupted her.

"I asked you to bring it not read it, Mai."

"Coming!" she shouted back and returned to the office where the layout of chairs had changed and a projector had been switched on.

Naru took the file from her and opened it to pull out a disk.

"What's that?"

She couldn't recall there being any disks kept in case records and any footage recorded on a case was normally deleted to save space.

"We started to film you once we realised that a lot of your unconscious actions were providing clues relating to the case," Naru explained and placed the disk into his laptop which was connected to the projector. "Sit down."

Mai sat down at one of the chairs that had been repositioned opposite the projector screen and Naru sat in the one next to her once he had pressed play.

"Do I do anything embarrassing?" she asked hesitantly. She always hated watching herself and considering the amount of times Naru or another member of SPR made a joke at her expense, it was going to be embarrassing to watch.

Naru's smirk was so wide that she could make it out in the dim light of his office which confirmed her suspicions.

"Nothing more than the usual," he said. "Just watch it."

The video started with someone shakily filming a house which looked like it was once a mansion but the roof had fallen in and there was ivy everywhere. A black figure holding a large sheet of paper that Mai took to be a floor plan, moved into view.

"We will be using the only intact room as a base," Naru said as he frowned over the floor plan."Lin and Mai will deliver the cameras to the base before I decide where to put them.."

"I was not expecting this place to be so dilapidated," Lin's voice off camera could be heard. "We need to make sure that the cameras do not get damaged by any rain- the weather forecast said it would rain tomorrow."

"That is a point," Naru conceded. "Mai, I gave you an order."

Mai stiffened as her 18 year old self stomped across the view of the camera and back across holding a camera a few seconds later.

"Should I give a summary of the case for the video, Naru-chan?" Bou-san's voice offered.

The camera was shaking so Mai inferred that it was the monk that was filming.

"Well, I'm not going to," Naru said simply and disappeared out of view.

"Suit yourself," Bou-san muttered. "Our client is a woman named Mina Watanabe who inherited this house from a distant relative. Apparently this area is quite popular with property developers so she wants to sell it, but she stayed a night here and heard laughter, tapping sounds and a wall nearly fell on top of her. She wants us to exorcise the ghosts so she can sell it with peace of mind."

The video flickered and the picture changed to show a familiar set of television screens and Lin typing on his laptop. Mai took it to be that the base had been set up. She squinted at a small window to the side of the bank of screen, which was showing a dark sky so she knew that there had been a significant time jump from the afternoon to evening.

"It's 11:05 and there's been a sudden drop in temperature in the west wing," Yasuhara's voice said. "Big boss, Bou-san and the priestess have gone to check it out. None of the cameras are showing anything unusual, however due to the bad weather we couldn't place them where we wanted."

Yasuhara jumped, causing the camera to shake as one of the screens showed Naru, the monk and priestess walking past.

"Oh, there goes big boss. Mai-chan, don't you think he looks good in that- she isn't here."

Lin pulled off his headphones and jumped up. "Naru told me to stay here and keep an eye on her and now she is gone. Brown-san, come with me," the omnouji instructed.

There was a rustling sound off camera which Mai took to be John moving around.

"I've been watching the feed all this time and I haven't seen her at all..." Yasuhara's voice said worriedly. "There haven't been any temperature drops either aside from the one Naru is investigating."

Lin looked thoughtful. "There was a part that we could not place anything at because there was no cover for the cameras or sensors, she must be there and she knows where the cameras are so she would not show up."

"I will get the floor plan," Masako's voice could be heard along with more rummaging noises.

The camera cut again and the scene changed again and Mai watched herself being disciplined by Naru. She frowned as she saw that her hair was wet and plastered to her face and her clothes had become very tight fitting.

"That was one of the most stupidest things you have done, Mai. What were you thinking? If you have a feeling about something, tell me or take someone like Lin or John with you. Don't go off by yourself," Naru warned with the most ferocious glared that Mai had ever seen him use.

The Mai Taniyama on screen blinked a lot before muttering. "...I'm sorry."

Once she had apologised, Naru's tone and posture seemed to soften.

"Do it again and I will handcuff you to one of us to keep you from sneaking off." He turned away. "Change your clothes before you get hypothermia."

Immediately the amnesiac wanted to know if Naru had ever carried out the threat. The prospect was mortifying. She turned to the narcissist with fearful eyes.

"No, Mai. I never handcuffed you to anyone. Once I waved them at you and after that you decided that you would much prefer to stay put in the base," he informed her. "You still sneaked off though and did stupid things."

"Do I do it again on this case?"

Naru paused the video. "Nearly, Lin and I followed you after you woke up from a dream and pulled you out of the way of a collapsing wall."

Mai blanched, she had been stupid on that case.

"Thank you," she said.

Naru's eyes widened fractionally. "You never said that when it actually happened."

The amnesiac wasn't too surprised. She knew that sometimes Naru's attitude and comments annoyed her a lot and she had often lost her train of speech and didn't apologise or thank him.

"What was the resolution of the case?" she asked.

"As it turned out, you had a dream about where to find a hitogata and went to find it. I made you spit it out and we found it. The client's name was on it and we disposed of it in the proper way. We did some further investigating into the area and found that most of the locals were against the property development and one of them had constructed the hitogata."

It sounded unusually short and simple for an SPR case, Mai reflected as Naru stood up and turned the projector off and ejected the disk from his laptop.

"You can read the case report if you want as long as you put it back where you found it," Naru told her and handed it to her.

Mai took it to be a dismissal and returned to her desk. On her way back she heard something drop and she bent down to pick up the sheet that had slipped out of the file. A closer inspection revealed it to be something unrelated to the case.

It was a photo of her sitting next to Naru who was smiling at her.