Mai sees once and for all what happened regarding Weiguó, and Lin adds garnish in the form of answers from his newest shiki. Naru rubs two brain cells together. The team prepares to go for broke.

.o0o.

Mai's mind was instantly swamped with images. So many images flailed before her, like an abstract flipbook of lights and colors. She caught glimpses of fragments of things that made sense—a blade of grass here, an actual blade there—all she wanted was for her mind to settle on something.

–

On cue, the scene around her transformed to a dark room. Mai could hardly see two inches from her face, but she knew the space was unreasonably small. She slowly came to the realization that she was lying on her back. It wasn't so much that she could feel the thing beneath her, but rather that her inner ear told her so. Just as she registered that, the walls by her sides started to glow orange. Several tiny nozzles flared to life. She was in a crematorium. She had barely enough time to scream when the scene changed.

–

Someone was holding her by her armpits, dragging her along the floor of a long hallway. She was dropped on top of a mangled corpse. Her gag reflex triggered instantly, but in the realm of the ethereal, she had nothing to throw up. Another body landed on top of her.

–

She couldn't move her legs. She was dragging herself forward. She had to get away! Her stomach was cut open like a gutted fish, leaving a trail of her own blood and viscera. It was only out of sheer willpower that she was moving.

Someone was walking up behind her. Who? She turned around. The muzzle of a gun leveled with her right eye.

Bang.

–

Explosions rocked her very being. She could hardly tell what was up or down. The cacophony went on for a good two minutes. A woman dressed in surgeon gear dropped down beside her, shards of debris impaling her from every angle. The woman was most certainly dead.

–

She was lying on a table, arms strapped above her head. A stern woman stared down at her with cold, cruel eyes. She was wearing a surgical mask and wielded a scalpel in her left hand. She brought the scalpel down to Mai's stomach. A massive explosion blasted the doctor off her feet, and tipped the operating table.

–

She was held down by the stern doctor and two men with cold, cruel eyes, neither of whom she recognized. The one by her arms looked to be just twenty, if even that. Somehow though, his eyes were hungrier for violence than that of his cohort by her feet, who was older by at least ten years.

With the two men holding Mai down, the doctor secured the restraints.

Once secured to the table, one of the men leaned over her and stroked her face. She bristled at being touched in such a way. It was clear this man held no affection for her, and this was mere mockery of comfort.

"I did warn you," he said. "I told the doc to leave your face, so that you can still talk. Maybe once you see what your own liver looks like, you'll be more cooperative."

–

Two men had her in a painful arm lock, walking her down a mostly abandoned hallway. Mai had something gripped in her right hand, which neither of the guards were aware of. It was disk-shaped and made of metal, with a concave seam running down the middle. They passed rows and rows of doors, some of them open, some of them closed. Some cells were empty, others had bodies of the dead, and others still housed barrels of what Mai assumed were chemicals. Only three cells had living men in them, each of them otherwise so visually divorced from what a human should look like that

She caught the eye of one such wretch, still alive in an open cell. Making sure he was watching, she opened her fist trapped behind her and dropped the object out of her hand. Luckily, neither of the guards noticed this, nor did they notice the half-dead man lunge for it as they marched Mai away.

The two men pushed open a pair of double doors, revealing an operating room, and the stern doctor.

–

Mai was sitting in her cell, left alone. She was playing with the battery of her broken watch. What was strange about it was that there was a thick, concave ridge dividing the small disk-shaped thing in half. She had never seen a battery like this before. She was having trouble moving her left arm, turning her torso, or wiggling her toes. She realized that her body had been damaged somehow, but she was not able to feel the pain that went with it. It was refreshing, in a way.

It was clear now that Mai was seeing the events in a reverse chronological order. She wished she had a break so that she could process what she was seeing. Realizing Weiguó wasn't going to give her that, she resolved to just remember each terrifying scene as it played, and report them to Naru later.

A muffled conversation caught her attention.

"Look, I know I could get what we want out of him if I just had more than half a day."

"Come on, man. You've had your fun. Let's let Dr. Grauss do her thing. She's… scarily good at it."

"Wuss."

The door to her cell opened. There were the two men. The younger of the two stepped inside, hand extended toward her.

–

The next vision was more like a blur. A long, grueling beating by the younger guard. This certainly did not read human experimentation to her. This was absolutely more of a prisoner situation. Mai was grateful that elements of the interrogation were abbreviated. She then wondered if Weiguó was doing that for her sake or his own. If this was just the spirit working backwards through his memories, then it would make sense for him to gloss over this haze of torment.

–

Mai was on the floor, in her cell, having just woken up. How did she get here? Who found her? By the sound of it, this old place, supposedly abandoned, was still in use. That wasn't good.

The door to her cell opened. Mai turned to see the same cruel young man.

"Hello Weiguó Lin."

Her eyes widened. This man knew his name. How?

"You're going to die in here, so I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you. You got traded for someone more important than you. You hear that, you Chinese scum? Your own country abandoned you. Now let's skip the denial part and get right to the part where you stop giving a shit about your loyalties and tell us everything you know."

Mai had a sudden urge to look at her wrist. She was wearing a metal watch. The clock face was broken. They were letting her keep it?

"Look at it this way. You'll always remember exactly what time it was when your fate was sealed." The guard let out a laugh. It was a harsh sound, like gripping glass shards in one's fist. Mai couldn't figure out what he thought was so funny, but if he was arrogant enough to let her keep her watch, then she would have the last laugh. The last thing she saw was the man unhooking a baton, and the glint of his cold, cruel eyes.

–

The cell and the man disappeared. Mai felt the ground beneath her shift into that of a soft mattress, with warm blankets over her.

A peek to her right revealed the light of morning peering in through the window. She stretched out on the large bed, partially in awe of its comfortable softness, and partially thankful that Naru had talked her into taking it. She had been initially hesitant when she saw the rustled blankets on top, left there by Lin's body as he lay unconscious for the rest of the team to find. Naru had eventually persuaded her to take the bed again, considering her job overnight would be tough enough as it is. A soft mattress was the least she could do for herself, considering her midnight mission.

All of this to say, Naru had slept on the tiny couch in the living room last night. Mai put on her clothes and made her way out of the bedroom. She was sure that Naru would have been wide awake by now, but it was to her surprise that the raven haired man was still zonked out on the couch. One arm lazily draped over the edge, knuckles grazing the floor. His legs were bent at odd angles, as the couch was too small for him. On the table next to him was a laptop. Mai frowned. She didn't remember Naru staying up late to work. Or perhaps it was one of those times when her dream self and waking self were all muddled together in her memory. It had certainly happened before.

Naru stirred. It was as though he could sense a pair of eyes on him. He looked around, discombobulated for several seconds, before remembering what was going on. He sat up and looked toward Mai.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," Mai said, daring to use a teasing voice.

Naru hummed. "Any progress?" he asked.

Once again, business as usual. Had their situation not been as it had been, Mai would have been more annoyed. It had become clear over the time that she and Naru had worked together that their coping methods were nearly polar opposites. Mai needed to keep things light. Grave situations, if they stayed grave in her head and heart, would only weigh her down. Naru, meanwhile, attacked problems from every angle he could conceive. If the problem was fixable, the only comfort he could derive was from fixing it.

In response to Naru's question, Mai reported, "Weiguó showed me how he died, but backwards, I think."

Naru's only answer was a raised eyebrow. Fair enough, he had only just woken up.

Mai recounted what she had seen, in the order she had seen it. Naru remained impassive as he listened along. When Mai was done, he folded his arms and closed his eyes.

"Interesting," he said. Mai scowled. There he went again, wheels turning without letting her in. Eventually, he opened his eyes. "How much of that account do you find trustworthy?"

Mai hesitated. Was Naru doubting her? She spotted a flicker of annoyance cross Naru's face. It was becoming more and more apparent that both he and she were not the best communicators first thing in the morning. She was about to tell Naru that she had no doubt Weiguó was telling the truth, but then she recalled the last thing that she had heard the guards say.

"That last part," Mai said. "When the guards told Weiguó that the Chinese gave him up in exchange for someone more important." A lightbulb suddenly turned on in her head. "Wait a minute. If Weiguó was spying on Japan, then… then he should be able to understand everything we've been saying!"

Naru nodded, a pensive finger on his chin.

"What if both were true though?" Mai spit-balled. "I mean… he has to be somewhat competent, because of the watch bomb." At least, what she assumed was a bomb. "Unless it was just a battery that that guy was able to turn into a bomb? But… I don't know if that's possible."

"One thing we still don't know is if any of the guards were Fusei. That's why I wanted to you to talk to Weiguó, remember?"

Mai huffed. "Were you hoping that the guards would just walk up to a non-Japanese speaking person and go, Hello, my name is Officer Fusei, you killed my father, prepare to die?"

Naru raised an eyebrow.

Mai folded her arms. "What? I just woke up. It's the best I could come up with. Besides, I've never even met the guy. I don't know what he sounds like, let alone what he looks like aged up forty years!"

Naru sighed. "I guess sending you in was pointless."

Mai opened her mouth to rebut, but all she could tell him off for was being rude. After all, what did Weiguó say that they could use to get rid of Fusei?

"If I saw Fusei in real life, I could match them?" Mai said.

Naru closed his eyes and nodded. Once again, Mai sensed a gear shift as Naru prepared to speak again. "There was something you said yesterday that I couldn't stop pondering—"

The sound of a car pulling up to the driveway drew both of their attention. Mai began to move toward the door, but Naru stuck a hand in front of her, stopping her. She waited while he made his way to the window and peered out.

"It's Monk's car," Naru said, allowing Mai to open the front door.

Inside Monk's car were Ayako, Masako, Yasu, and John. They all got out with a yawn and a stretch, and met Naru and Mai halfway to the door, save for Ayako, who suddenly turned her back to the team, dug through her purse, and fished out her phone. She stepped away from them all, putting the phone to her ear. Masako stood somewhere between the two groups, looking back and forth between Ayako and the rest of them like a spectator at a tennis match.

"Morning everyone," Monk greeted. "How'd you sleep?" That last question was clearly directed toward Mai.

"Well, you know," Mai said. "Weiguó showed me how he died. Turns out he was responsible for the explosions down there. He used some kind of silver bomb to blow up the barrels of chemicals."

Yasu nodded. "I thought I saw broken barrel fragments down there."

"So then he was sent to do some spying?" Monk asked.

"The guards told him that the Chinese government traded him for a different prisoner more important than him," Mai said. With a glance toward Naru, she added, "I don't know whether or not that's true."

"Really? Are you sure?" Ayako asked. Everyone turned to her, only to see that she wasn't talking to them—she was still on the phone. She had turned to face the team, so they could all see the worry and skepticism in her eyes. Suddenly her expression hardened. "What!? He what!? Okay. Okay. What room is he in? … Well, all six of us are going to visit him, so you need to make that happen. Yes, I know the visitation limits… With all due respect, your husband is the reason he's in this mess! Ask him if you need any more answers!"

And with an angry huff, Ayako jammed her thumb on the end-call button. Touch screens nowadays didn't offer the same satisfaction as slamming a phone onto a receiver. The team stared at Ayako, waiting for her explanation.

"That was Dr. Kanna Fusei, the wife of you-know-who and board chair. She said that one of the nurses called last night and said their haunting problem had been stopped, and that the one who stopped it was Lin. She couldn't explain exactly what he did, just that he saved them."

Mai inhaled. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Naru tense.

"Is he all right?" Monk asked.

"Kanna said so, but I trust her as far as Masako can throw her," said Ayako, drawing a blank look from the medium.

"Monk, take us to the hospital," Naru ordered, making for the van again. Monk opened his mouth, but then he stamped down whatever it was he was going to say. Mai recognized that look on Naru's face—the one of self-blame and disgust. It was likely that he felt guilt over putting Lin in Ayako's hospital, assuming that just because they had made leeway on their current case, that the hospital had become safe as a result.

Nobody batted an eye when the seven of them arrived. The only one who tried to stop them at all was the guide in charge of writing all of the visitor passes, whom Ayako dealt with swiftly. Something about checking his notifications and Dr. Fusei was just enough for them all to get a pass, literally and figuratively.

They went up the elevator. Ayako fended off a few more staffers just doing their jobs, and they arrived in room 10-23, where Koujo Lin was staying. Naru didn't even bother to knock—he just went in. There, he came face to face with his tall assistant, who had absolutely seen better days. He was sitting up in the bed, dressed in a hospital gown and hooked up to a cardiac monitor. Naru found that odd immediately, as they wouldn't be monitoring his heart just because. Lin's eyes were heavy and troubled, and his face was pulled into a tight scowl. He looked as though he was ready to fling the bed remote at the next person who walked in, but thankfully he settled for a deadpan, "Come in."

Monk walked right up to him. "Hey Lin, how goes it?" he asked. Was it just him, or did Takigawa completely miss the deepening frown that Lin shot his way?

When it was clear to Naru that Lin was uncomfortable, he intervened. "Lin, report."

Lin turned his head toward the rest of the SPR. "I enthralled the hospital's ghost."

The room burst into exclamations of disbelief and confusion. Lin waited for everyone to stop talking. Then, on cue, the husk that had been the bane of the team's existence for the past four days materialized between the bed and the window.

The reactions of the team were varied. Masako practically hissed like a snake at seeing it. Ayako curled her lip. John and Yasu both turned away as subtly as they could. Mai stared. Takigawa was instantly brandishing his tokkosho, again, failing to notice how his sudden aggressive movement made Lin tense and his heart monitor speed up. Ayako walked up behind him and grabbed him by the shoulder, thankfully before he could injure the shiki and Lin in the process.

"Monk, put that away!" Naru ordered.

There was a pause of confusion before Takigawa finally got a clue. He slipped the instrument back in his belt loop, out of sight. "Right, sorry," was all he offered.

Naru looked at Lin for further explanation. Before they could get down to work talk, Mai pushed through to the front.

"Good morning Lin," she said. "How are you?"

Lin stared at her, unsure of how to respond.

Naru took the reins of the conversation before it could get any more awkward. "We have information to share, and I'm sure you do too."

Lin responded. "I was able to interrogate the husk last night. It told me it was a tracker, as in it would track prisoners that managed to escape the complex. The reason it began to leave the facility was because of Weiguó's departure."

"Which was triggered by Fusei's arrival to Eastern Village," Naru said.

"The complex was in full use before the war. It didn't tell me of any activity between wartime and when it was employed. At that point, they were mostly funneling in forgotten men."

"From China, right?" Mai asked.

"They were all foreigners," Lin said. "It is not able to tell me where their prisoners post-war came from."

"Did it reveal the identities of any more of the staff?" Naru asked.

"Dr. Grauss," Mai said. Everyone turned to her. "In my dream last night. One of the doctor's names was Grauss."

"Is that… German?" John asked.

"Certainly not Japanese," Yasu said.

"Well, unless it's grouse, as in the English word for a ground-dwelling pheasant, then yes, I would imagine it's Germanic," Naru said. He looked at Mai. "This Dr. Grauss was speaking Japanese?"

Mai lifted her chin, thinking back to her dream. "She never spoke in my dream. But one of the men who dragged me out told me that he had told her to save my face so that I could talk. She is dead though. I saw that much."

Nobody looked particularly affected by what she had said, but Monk put a hand on her head. "So you saw through the ghost's eyes again, huh kiddo?"

Oh. She had started using first person. "Yeah. It's strange though. Until now, I had been seeing Lin in place of Weiguó, and names and bodies were never clear."

Masako spoke next. "You were most likely seeing a fusion of every memory that Weiguó brought with him, whether they were his or not, and your own psychic energy. Whatever Weiguó refused to explain, your mind would be left to fill in the blanks."

"I would also imagine that is a matter of trust, familiarity, and waning resentment," said Naru. "In other words, you've grown on him."

Mai thought this through. The wheels turning in her head were almost audible. "So… so all that time, he was showing me those horrible things to torment me?"

"That or," Masako continued. "It has been a few days since Weiguó was trapped in the facility. Sharing your energy may have had a softening effect on him."

Naru turned to Lin. "Does your shiki know a Dr. Grauss?"

Lin turned to the window. A few seconds later, he turned back. "Yes, it did. It also tells me that it didn't know any of its co-workers personally, or their first names. They stayed on a last-name basis."

"Did it know Fusei?"

Lin's face was blank. "Yes."

"Did it know Weiguó?"

"Yes."

This time, Mai spoke. "Was it the one that shot Weiguó in the head?"

Lin hesitated, eyebrow twitching as he listened to his shiki. "No. That was Fusei."

Naru nodded. "I thought so." He clammed up, closing his eyes to think.

While the boss did that, Monk walked over to the bed and rested his hand on the headboard. Thankfully, neither Lin nor his cardiac monitor showed any outward signs of wariness. "Hey Lin, we have something we wanted to run by you."

"What is it?" Lin said.

"Ayako found out that the energy in the forest was all out of whack, and restoring the natural flow was the best method for cleansing it." Monk gestured to Ayako, bringing her over to his side to help with explaining. "As our resident elemental master, we were hoping that's something you'd know how to approach."

Mai hid a small grin. Monk made it sound like Lin was the Avatar. To Monk's question, Lin nodded. "It would depend on whether the energy is stuck, or if it's overflowing."

"Stuck," Ayako said. "Very stuck."

"I figured as much. In that case, you would have to find out which element or elements are the source of the backup, depending on which elemental cycle you are using, and break a hole in them. Depending on the amount of leftover energy left, you don't have to break a very big hole."

Ayako folded her arms in thought. "Like poking a hole in a dam, if one part goes, the rest isn't long to follow. But I tried that already with the axe and nearly took Monk's head off."

"It is best to do this kind of work in the spiritual plane," Lin said. "From what you report, there are blockages in Wood, Fire, and Earth." Lin lifted his left hand as if holding something in his palm. "If I had all of my shiki, this would be a relatively straightforward task. Simply working with each of their corresponding elements, they could coax the static energy in the surrounding environment to move with them. But with just the one that I have, I wouldn't be able to do much work."

"What about Mr. Monster over there?" Monk asked.

Lin scowled again. "I'm not keeping it. Once we're through, I will have it destroyed. Furthermore, it was formerly human. It has no natural aptitude for elemental magic."

Mai couldn't suppress the gasp. Lin pinned her with a sharp glance. Had Mai turned around, she would have seen the surprise on Yasu's face. Mai quickly realized she was staring. She shook her head and spoke. "What about the giant rolling tar mesh of husks?" Mai asked. At the looks of confusion sent her way, she said, "The giant thing that killed Lin's Wood shiki."

Lin narrowed his eyes.

John ran a hand down his face. "I completely forgot about that."

"It was only in the spiritual plane," Mai said. "I don't know how to even begin approaching that."

"Considering everything we've learned," Yasu began, "Then is it possible that this giant mosh pit of melted ghosts is the manifestation of the trapped spirits in the spirit realm?"

Yasu's question drew more than a few impressed stares.

"Look at you, Osamu," Ayako said, folding her arms with a smirk.

"I may be the normie of the group, but I can still be taught a thing or two," Yasu said, flashing that playfully smug smirk.

"In any case," Monk said, "If it is as you say, a result of the backed-up energy flow, then unblocking it should grant those spirits some peace."

"Do you think that's why everyone and everything has been after you, Lin?" Mai asked. "Because you can undo the damage to the woods and expose everyone who was responsible for Site 387? If you solve this thing, you could completely end Fusei's career."

Before Lin could respond, Naru interjected. "That's the key observation you made yesterday Mai, though I doubt you noticed the gravity of it. You see, if you use the brain that you supposedly have in your skull, you would see the trap that Nakamura and Saito are setting for us. There are more than two sides to this story."

Monk scratched his head. "I'm not following, Naru."

Ayako, on the other hand, was still sharp as a whip. "If Nakamura and Saito are on the same side as Fusei, they never would have asked us to take this case. It puts their supposed ally right in the line of fire."

Naru folded his arms, going back to his clammy, thinking pose. "It is in the city's best interest that they get rid of the forest. It's an eyesore, and the land could be developed. It would also handle the problem of hiding Site 387 permanently. It goes well for several years, until they come across the stand of trees that is invulnerable to anything short of an unbridled wildfire. They then send Nakamura and Saito to hire us.

"None of this, the intent to demolish, hiring the SPR, it was never announced publicly. If it were, I'm sure Yasu would have found articles about it during his research. No matter how innocuous the communication, drawing attention to Site 387 was not worth the risk. But I would imagine that Fusei would have access to this kind of information as a high-ranking detective at the police station.

"Nakamura and Saito try to get us to investigate the woods where Weiguó was murdered. It goes without saying that the criminals who first operated Site 387 are likely nearly all dead by now, but Fusei's murder of Weiguó would be cause for investigation. Naturally, death by malicious spirit is not acceptable in court of law, but Fusei wouldn't want to take the chance that the hard evidence had been thoroughly destroyed."

"Wow. When did you figure all that, Naru?" Monk asked.

"I did some late night research," Naru said. "Much of this reasoning comes from all of the things I couldn't find."

"Hence, it was deliberately hidden."

"With this kind of detective instinct, you'd be an asset in nearly any field," said Masako.

Naru ignored her. "So Fusei transfers to Eastern Village after hearing about the demolition ambitions, not the plans to hire us. Remember, he was already at Eastern Village when we first set up base in Ayako's hospital. He wants to be close to the demolition, to keep an eye on the proceedings, while keeping an ear on the system via the police force. Because he also knows about the invincible trees, and once that gets out, there'd be nothing but time between him and a full on investigation. He does not anticipate two things: one, that Weiguó is not like the other war spirits trapped here. Weiguó's ghost escapes, finds us, stirring up the catcher—" Naru motioned to Lin and Ayako, obviously referring to Ayako's peeping tom ghost, which was now under Lin's total control. "And two: Fusei does not anticipate us." Naru then turned fully to Ayako. "I can't say for sure if even Nakamura and Saito anticipated that you would bring us your hospital's case."

"They don't sound like they're great at planning," Takigawa said. "After all, didn't you say that the board's chair is Fusei's wife?"

"Who's to say how much she knows about him?" Ayako returned. "Or if he married her so that he could have an ear on Eastern Village? Personally, I don't think she's worth keeping tabs on."

Takigawa put his hands on his hips. "You'd be the one to know."

"So what changes if Fusei and the Terrible Twos are actually enemies?" asked Mai. "Does that mean Nakamura and Saito are… our allies?"

Naru turned his glare toward her. "Absolutely not. This is no enemy mine situation. Nakamura and Saito set us up."

Mai's eyes widened.

Masako stepped forward. "But they needed you to undo the mess that the crematoriums made, genuinely."

"That part is true," said Naru with a nod. "But that pits us directly against Fusei, who had every reason to delay the demolition. What I'm curious about is whether or not Nakamura and Saito even knew about Fusei specifically, or if they just knew that some facility operators still exist."

"Maybe…" Masako began. "Perhaps they were trying to lure out any last living remnants of Site 387?"

Naru hummed. "It's possible. If Fusei is the only one, then it worked."

"I don't know," said Yasu. "A bullet to the head is a lot easier than… all this." He gestured to all of them with flailing arms. "The movies make high-speed manipulation look easy, but it's not. It's really, really not."

Mai tapped her chin. "Well, if they're trying to manipulate us, you know, aside from solving the case, what is it they want us to do? If it's in their interest that everything related to Site 387 goes away, then that would include Fusei, right?"

Monk snorted. "Either Fusei destroys us or we destroy Fusei. And because last I checked, murder is illegal, whoever is left standing gets swallowed up by the police?"

"So then what do we do?" Lin said, his tone so dry that it could have been mistaken for hopelessness. He looked at Naru. "Is the plan to abandon the case?"

"I doubt that either side will let us go that easily," Naru replied.

Lin gave his head a single, solid shake. Takigawa moved to put a hand on the man's shoulder, but he hesitated. After a few seconds of deliberation, he placed the hand down.

John raised a hand. "This might be a dumb question, but what about the police? Since murder is illegal, and now we have two eye-witness accounts that report he did it?" He motioned to both Mai and the window, supposedly where the husk was still standing.

"Psychic accounts are not accepted as valid evidence, unfortunately," said Naru. "Everyone and their grandmother knows that. What we'd need from Fusei is nothing less than a signed confession, especially since he's a respected cop."

"Well couldn't that work in our favor though?" Yasu asked. "If everything spiritual and psychic is under the table so to speak, then wouldn't that be our best bet of fighting back?"

"Fusei has the power to trap and enthrall spirits, even if they were previously under the command of some other entity," Lin said. "I can't say whether he practices onmyodo, but he does have a powerful spiritual ability."

"Yeah, but now we know he has that power," said Monk.

"Just remember," Naru said. "This is a double-edged sword. If we can get away with taking down Fusei by spiritual means, then he can get away with the same. No law will protect or avenge us." There was a pause. "And that's probably exactly what they want."

"When it comes to spiritualism, It's the goddamn wild west out here," Ayako muttered. John winced at her profanity, but that was the least of their problems.

"It might be best if we focus on the problem we know more about," said Ayako, thankfully before the room spiraled into a million what-if scenarios. As had been said the day before, running around in circles chasing threads would only serve to drive them crazy.

"Back to the woods then?" Masako asked. Nobody responded, but the sober expressions of everyone in the room was all the confirmation they needed.

Yasu shot an uneasy glance around the room. "And what do we do afterwards?"

Ayako held up her hand. "One problem at a time."

Yasu couldn't help but flail his arms a bit. "I don't know, the after part feels kind of critical!"

"I need to get my shiki back," said Lin. Everyone turned to him. "With just Fire, I can't work through the barriers. I need Earth to take care of the tainted ground, and I can substitute Wood's destruction with Metal."

"Why not just use Fire to take care of Wood?" Mai questioned.

"Fire's forces were what created the blockage within Wood," said Lin. "It wouldn't be able to undo the results of its power."

Mai's brow furrowed, clearly not following.

"In other words," said Monk. "You can't un-grill a chicken by adding more fire."

John spoke up next. "But this does mean that we will have to go after Fusei next, right? If he has Lin's familiars…?"

"Hattori should be working on that," Ayako said, relaying again (although with much more brevity) the encounter that she and the rest of surface team, minus Mai, had had with Hattori.

"And if he gets caught?" Monk asked.

"Then his career is probably over," said Ayako.

"They wouldn't kill him, would they?" asked Yasu.

"I doubt that. It's more than likely that Fusei would have to rely on something other than murder directly to dispose of Hattori. Dead bodies draw a bit more than flies, and unlike us, he's got too many people who would notice his absence too quickly. Besides, from what I could tell, Fusei needs Hattori's medium powers, like a seeing-eye dog."

Masako faced Ayako. "Hattori might be a medium, but he is untrained. All he can do is see and speak. He can't fight. Trust me—you can tell if a medium has no defenses quite plainly, if you know and are able to see what to look for."

Mai inched closer to Masako. "Do you see that in me?"

Masako turned her dollish eyes toward Mai. "Some of it, yes, without a doubt."

Before they could talk further, a knock sounded at the door. Half the room tensed—the other half merely turned their unsuspecting attention to the new sound.

"Come in," Lin said.

In walked a doctor holding a file folder. She looked surprised at the presence of eight people in the room, but upon locking eyes with Ayako, she elected to refrain from comment on the subject.

"Hello Mr. Lin, how are you doing?" she asked in that way that doctors do. "How's the pain level?"

"Manageable," said Lin. The team turned their heads back and forth, watching the exchange on baited breath.

"You gave us quite a scare last night, Mr. Lin."

"I'm fine now."

"I just want to make sure you understand. After we re-did your stitches, during the night at approximately eleven p.m. you nearly went into cardiac arrest. Thankfully, you did not need CPR, but we've had you on cardiac monitoring due to the recent and acute stress to your heart."

The team winced at the doctor's explanation. They of course knew the causes of Lin's heart damage, but explaining it would get them carted out by security at best, and in straightjackets at the worst. Lin sighed, surprisingly unsurprised at the news. "Am I stable enough to leave?"

The doctor sent another suspicious glance around the room, avoiding eye contact with Ayako. She handed Lin the folder she was holding.

"Personally, I would want to wait a few more hours just to be comfortable—"

"I am not at risk of that kind of reaction again," Lin said, cutting her off. "I would like to be discharged."

The doctor stared at him with a pursed lip and furrowed brows. Eventually, she passed the folder to him.

"Here is your discharge paper, as well as information for what to do if you start to feel worse, become feverish, or if you open your stitches. For your own understanding, Mr. Lin, I cannot emphasize enough that you need to let your heart recover. One more attack like that could be fatal."

With a simple nod and word of thanks, Lin accepted the folder and signed the form. With a stiff expression, the doctor took the signed form and unhooked him from the cardiac monitor. It beeped angrily at being disconnected until the doctor silenced it. To Mai, it felt more like she was snuffing out a struggling entity rather than turning off a machine. Then she left, her shoes clicking on the ground as she exited.

Once she was gone, the team looked to Lin.

"Did I hear her right that there's a problem with your heart?" Monk demanded.

Lin swung his legs over the side of the bed. Naru handed him the bag of his clothes. He grimaced when he saw the bloodstained white shirt. He should have thought to bring him a new set of clothes.

Monk grabbed Lin's shoulder, stopping him from moving.

"It was a side effect of my fight with the husk," said Lin. "I have recovered sufficiently. It won't happen again."

He shrugged off Takigawa's hand. Without another word, he disappeared into the bathroom to change. That didn't stop the rest of the team from looking toward the bathroom door, worry apparent on all of their faces. Mai snuck up to Monk's side, mustering up the courage to tell him about Lin's apprehension around him, but Yasu beat her to the podium, so to speak.

"Does he seem… rather prickly to you all?" Yasu said quietly. "You know, more so than usual?"

Ayako let out a scoff. "Who wouldn't be?"

"Should we really be letting this happen though?" Monk asked, gesturing to the door.

"Something tells me we don't let Lin do anything," Yasu said.

Lin returned from the bathroom quickly, wearing the same clothes he came in with. The rest of the team frowned at seeing the bloodstains that were still on it.

"We'll stop by the apartment before we get to work," Naru said, to which Lin just nodded.

Once back at Naru's apartment, Lin did a thorough sweep for hidden bugs and cameras. To his relief, he found none. Naru gave him a skeptical look, but otherwise accepted it. Lin wouldn't lie about that, and regardless of his own fitness at the moment, his shiki were perfectly capable of doing what was asked of them.

The apartment secured, Lin changed. He didn't dawdle in his room, as much as he would have liked to. There was still a case to solve, a mess to untangle, regardless of the pain in his chest. He didn't need a doctor to tell him that he was too close to pushing himself past the point of recovery. Alas, the enemy wouldn't wait for him to return to peak condition. This needed to end, and fast.

It was on the stairs that Lin nearly faceplanted, not because of anything physically wrong, but a familiar voice called out to him—one he hadn't heard in days.

"Master!"

Grabbing the railing for stability, he immediately fired back, "Metal! Where are you!?"

"Unsure. Earthling is wounded. I am the culprit. It was involuntary… I was compelled."

"Break free!" Lin ordered.

"My connection to you is waning. Master, I—"

The last thing Lin heard was the demonic shrieking of his tengu shiki. Then the line went dead, leaving only Naru next to him, grabbing his arm and shouting in his face, trying to get his attention. Snapping himself back to the here and now, Lin forced himself to answer.

"My shiki. I just heard them."

Naru checked his watch. It was eight thirty in the morning.

"Was it able to return to you?"

Lin stared off into the distance. He waited for any sign of the connection returning. But no, as suddenly as they called out, their voices vanished. "I need to get closer to them. Preferably in the same room."

Naru reached for his back pocket, only to come up empty. "My phone broke when we were underground," he said. In response Lin whipped out his own phone. "Call the office and check the voicemail."

Lin did so. The first message was from Hattori. He put the phone on speaker. "Hello Mr. Shibuya, I took care of things on my end. It should be ready by tomorrow morning. Please come into the station if you need to contact me further."

The message ended. Lin and Naru exchanged glances. "He's talking about the charms," Naru said.

"He didn't do enough, clearly," Lin retorted.

"In any case, our next stop is the police station."

Lin looked in his direction. He hesitated at Naru's suggestion, as he had just been arrested on espionage charges. But then again, he was not processed. The station would likely have no record of his arrest. Was it possible that they had forgotten about him already? The only ones who would remember would be Hattori, Fusei, and the poor middleman who had transferred him from downtown to Eastern Village. At thoughts of Fusei, a low, cacophonous moan caught his attention. Fire turned towards its tail at the noise.

"Is it the spirits that followed you?" Naru asked, sensing his assistant's distraction.

Lin nodded. "They are not shiki. They do not follow orders because they are bound or contracted. If I walk into the station, I have no idea what they might do."

Naru made that face that he always made when thinking. "So in other words, walking into that police station would make you something of a trojan horse."

"Yes, that had crossed my mind."

"You feel up to going?"

"Unless the others have a better idea, I do."

And thus, the two of them left the building and approached their team, anxiously awaiting their next move.