Okay there might be one more short post case chapter before the next case, but I've given you a bit of a clue as to what it will be. :)

Also, a shoutout to RAIKIM4everlover who had a small request that I will explain in more depth in a later chapter. Anyway enjoy!

Post Case 2-Advice

Wednesday, December 1:02 P.M.

It was a boring day for Taniyama Mai. She was in the middle of her first week of winter break and she was already a little bored. She finished her homework the day before thanks to another nightmare waking her up. Even with her sessions with Hozumi the nightmares we still around, she was just finding it a little easier to sleep a little longer and fall back asleep faster. However she did skip her last session with him that week, Shouta invited her to a get together a friend of his was having.

She went running that morning, showered, did her laundry and cleaned her whole apartment and now she was just procrastinating getting ready to go to work. She had to be there by three, as much as she wanted to do something, work was not one of those things she wanted to do.

Beep beep. Beep beep.

Mai was on her bed relaxing as she pondered the absolute need to get ready for work, when she heard her phone go off. Rolling on her side she grabbed the phone her boyfriend gave her for Christmas. Lo and behold, it was him.

Hey! What are you up to today? A text message read.

Mai smiled as she eagerly typed back. Nothing. Just relaxing until work. Why?

I wanted to hang out with you tonight.

I don't get out of work until 8

Any way you can get out of it? Just for tonight? Mai had to read the text again. Was he serious? I mean, it's not like they are super busy around this time of the year and you just finished a case last week. You only had one day off in two weeks. Just say you have a doctor's appointment or something.

He was right. Mai just shrugged and decided to give it a shot. She needed a day off. "Moshi moshi, Kazuya desu," Naru answered after two rings.

"Hey, Naru, it's Mai, I completely forgot to tell you," she began, trying to make it sound convincing. "But I have a doctor's appointment today at four, I can't reschedule it. Is it all right if I have today off?"

The other line was silent for a moment. Mai thought the line had been dropped, but then she heard an exasperated exhale. "That is fine, in the future be sure to let me know of these things ahead of time."

"Will do, thanks Naru!" she hung up the phone and quickly texted Shouta. Okay, I'm now free. What time?

I'll pick you up around 3:30.

Sounds good.

See you then. Love you!

Love you!

Mai rolled onto her stomach and let her phone drop to the floor. An uneasy feeling filled the pit of her stomach. She had just lied to Naru, not for the first time, technically, but she lied for selfish reasons. It didn't feel right. Oh Mai! Get a grip! She heard a little voice in her head tell her.

You know Naru has lied to you since you met him. The whole reason you work for him is because of a lie he told you shortly after you met him! The voice argued.

Mai couldn't deny that. Naru did only get her to be his assistant by saying she had to work to pay for the camera that she helped break. Despite the fact that the camera was insured and Lin was actually able to work, as far as conducting research and reviewing evidence. He just wanted to make her feel bad for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This wasn't nearly as bad.

So, Mai got up and started getting ready for her date.

3:59 P.M.

"So, I took a day off so I could run errands with you?" Mai asked skeptically as she walked next to her boyfriend toward a convenience store.

"No, I do have errands to run, but I figured I could get everything done by walking down this strip, which is not too far from your apartment. And who wouldn't want the lovely company of my girlfriend?" he teased, wrapping an arm around her. "And besides, you needed a day off, especially with how Naru treats you."

"What do you mean with how he treats me?" she asked, tilting her head to look up at him.

"You've said so yourself, he continuously treats you like an imbecile and questions your theories. It can't be easy working for a narcissist like him."

"Well, it's not easy, you have that right, but," she replied, shaking her head as they walked into a coffee shop. "He's gotten better about mocking my stupidity. He's starting to actually include me on investigations. Teaching me how to investigate properly. I'm starting to feel more like an apprentice, rather than his assistant."

"I still don't trust him," he retorted, ordering each of them a hot chocolate with whipped cream.

"Oh, is that jealousy?" she teased, nudging his arm. "Afraid I'm going to have an affair with my boss?"

Shouta chuckled. "You're beautiful, but I don't think Naru is into you like that," he replied. "You've worked together for almost two years, if he was into you enough to try to start a relationship even just an FWB it would have happened by now. So, I have no fears there."

"Okay, then what don't you trust him about?" she asked, as their drinks came out.

"Just this sudden changed, for the longest time he was content with having you be his little tea slave that he could mock and get a rise out of you every time you would do something he considered dumb." Shouta led her back outside and sipped his hot chocolate. "You don't deserve to be treated like that by him."

"Thanks," she said with an eye roll. "Maybe he realized that he was being too harsh and actually wants to have me more involved. It could happen right?"

Shouta looked down at his girlfriend with a playful smile on his face. "You're cute when you're optimistic like that," he said, earning a confused look from her.

"What do you mean by tha-hey!" she tried to ask, but Shouta just stole her hat and ran for one of the stores on the strip. "Shouta!"

"Oh Mai-chan!" Michiru shouted as she and Keiko walked into Shibuya Psychic Research with the bell ringing behind them. "We came to visit!"

"Mai isn't working today," Lin answered from the kitchenette, making tea.

"That's not what she told us!" Keiko replied, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, we haven't seen her since my party on Saturday," Michiru replied, crossing her arms. "We were supposed to hang out on Sunday, but she had some appointment she apparently forgot about."

From back in his office, Naru's head perked up. Believe it or not, the young gentleman loved to eavesdrop, though it really didn't count if the idiot he was spying on was talking loud enough for him to hear from a room away. He stood up and headed for his office door.

"We wanted to visit her, we weren't going to stay for long, we know you guys are busy. I swear Mai told us she was working all week!" Keiko defended to Lin.

"Mai got her schedule wrong," Naru said, walking out into the living area of their little office. "She thought she was to work today and called to confirm but I told her to take the day off."

Why was he covering for her?

"Well, that would have been great if she told us!" Keiko exclaimed, crossing her arms.

"Bet you she told Shouta, she's probably making out with him right now," Michiru replied, flipping her hair back.

"Sorry to bother you, Shibuya-san," Keiko apologized, pushing Michiru out toward the door. "We'll call Mai later about how we missed her. If you have any openings for job here, Michiru is looking for one!"

"Keiko!"

"Bye!"

Keiko slammed the door behind them. Leaving Naru and Lin standing there looking at each other. "What are you thinking?" Lin asked him, sipping his cup of tea.

"What do you mean what am I thinking?" Naru shook his head, as he turned back into his office.

"Never mind," his tall assistant replied heading for his own office. "You could have revealed that Mai pulled the same trick on you that she did on her friends, but you covered for her."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Of course you don't" The two closed their doors and continued their business.

4:27 P.M.

"Thank you! You are too kind!" Mai mocked as Shouta finally gave her back her hat in the convenience store. The boy just gave her a cheeky smile and leaned down for a kiss. "Oh you think you're going to get off easy don't you!" Mai retorted, as his arm wrapped around her waist.

"Well? Am I?" he asked pulling her in and kissing her lips.

"No! Mai!" a high pitched, but very familiar voice cried out as the couple suddenly felt something go between them and try to push them apart. "You're supposed to marry Mr. Meany!"

"Makoto!" Mai and another very familiar voice exclaimed, one in surprise and one in displeasure.

"Mr. Meany?" Shouta raised his brow in confusion.

"Riku?" Mai turned her head and saw said boy shaking his head and gently pulling his adoptive sister back.

"Makoto, you know better than to do that!" Riku scolded, but the little girl looked up at him with her big eyes.

"But Nii-san," she replied sheepishly, looking up warily at the unexpected couple.

"Well, isn't this a beautiful reunion?" Mai heard another familiar voice, turning to find a familiar face with slightly different hair.

"Setsuko!" Mai exclaimed, hugging the girl. She no longer had the purple in her bangs, she opted for blood red instead. "No more purple?"

"No," she laughed sheepishly. "After what happened over the summer, I couldn't do the purple anymore."

"I don't blame you," Mai said shaking her head. "I'm sorry he did that, I can't imagine how you felt when he-" But the girl just held up a hand.

"I'm over it, the rest of the summer went off without a hitch and Makoto over there is no different than she was before this whole thing started. That's all that matters," she replied, giving a playful smile. "I told you I would hunt you down if I came to Tokyo. Who's the boy?"

"Oh!" Mai felt so bad with the sudden reunion she forgot about her boyfriend standing there completely confused. "This is my boyfriend, Shouta, Shouta, this is Riku, his younger sister Makoto, and Setsuko, SPR had a case with them over the summer."

"Nice to meet you," Shouta offered, with a smile.

"You too," the two camp counselors replied, almost skeptically.

"But, Mai, what about Mr. Meany?" Makoto looked up at the high schooler with sad eyes.

"Oh, Makoto, cheer up!" another familiar voice said, as another friend came up and patted the girl's head. "It's nice to see you again, Mai."

"Arata!" Mai said with a smile, she gestured to her boyfriend. "This is my boyfriend Shouta, Shouta, this is Arata, he was also on the case over the summer."

Makoto was not pleases and crossed her arms and turned with a stomp of her foot. "Makoto, you know better than to act this way," Setusko scolded as Mai felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Don't mind her," Riku said, as Mai turned around to realize he was the one that tapped her. "How've you been?"

"I'm doing alright," Mai replied, thinking back and realizing just how long it had been since she had seen the counselors. It was only four months, but it felt like years. "SPR has had quite a few cases since your parents' camp, I can't say I haven't kept busy since we left. How's your family doing after the case? Makoto seems to have recovered almost completely."

"My parents are just relieved that the whole situation is finally taken care of and that none of it made it to the news, otherwise we would be out of the business," he explained, as Shouta was receiving a stern talking to from little Makoto. "Makoto has recovered very well, every now and again she'll have nightmares about it, though." He gave a sigh and crossed his arms. "It's become less frequent but probably around every other week there is at lease one night where I'll wake up to find her crawling into my bed."

"Poor thing," Mai commented, looking down at the girl who wanted nothing to do with her boyfriend. She was still going off about how Mai and Mr. Meany were meant to be and Shouta was still processing who Mr. Meany was.

"I can't get mad at her for it, if I had been her I would be crawling into my parents' bed in the middle of the night too," he shrugged.

"So, why is Mr. Meany better than me?" they heard Shouta ask the girl.

"Because, they have rainbows and unicorns keeping them company in the magical castle in the sky where they live. They are gonna have a million kagillion kids that look just like them, too!" she answered, stomping her foot and refusing to look at the young man.

"I'm sorry," Riku apologized with an embarrassed smile.

"That's okay," Mai replied, deciding to intervene. "Hey, Makoto."

Makoto was a little angry with Mai for having "cheated on her husband" as the little girl called it. Mai just knelt down to her level and put a hand on her shoulder. "Mr. Meany's mad at you," the little girl said, refusing to look at her.

"But he's not, he's actually happy for me," she told her. "You see, I met Shouta on a case, just like how I met you, and when I ran into him again, he asked me out on a date. Mr. Meany has met him, and knows that I'm dating him, and he's happy for me."

Makoto still wouldn't look at her. "She'll be okay, she's like a little fangirl with her own fanfiction about who should be together with who," Setsuko said, as Mai stood back up. "She wasn't too happy that I started dating Arata."

"Really?" Mai asked.

"Yeah, she wanted me to go out with Riku over there," she laughed, crossing her arms. "She managed to get over that, so I'm sure she'll get used to you two lovebirds."

"Glad to see I'm second best," Shouta teased. Everyone laughed.

"No, Makoto's…er…serious like that," Arata answered. "She has an idea in her head and if it doesn't go exactly how she plans, she gets a little upset, but she gets over it real quick."

"How quick is real quick?" Shouta asked, as Makoto now refused to look at any of them.

"Well, it took her about a week to be happy about us," Arata answered.

"That doesn't make me feel better," Shouta sweatdropped.

"It's alright, I still love you," Mai nudged him, he turned to face her and gave her a quick kiss.

"Nii-san? Can we go now?" Makoto asked, still not looking up.

"So much for a happy reunion," Setsuko shrugged with a laugh.

"And it was there that I was able to help the lost spirit find the light, so that he may move on to a peaceful afterlife."

"Cut!" the director shouted, as Masako relaxed as the camera light was dimmed. "Perfect, Masako! Another job well done!"

"Thank you, Yamamoto-san," the teenaged girl in the kimono replied with a smile.

"I think we have everything we need, now we just have to get back to the studio and edit this and we have your season finale," the director said, standing up from his stool. "Great work everyone! Let's break it down!"

"I cannot thank you enough, Hara-san!" a middle-aged man ran onto the set, and grasped the girl's hands thanking her.

"Inoue-san, no thanks are necessary," Masako replied, smiling as she usually did with her clients. "This is what I do."

"Well, I'm glad my actors will no longer be terrorized when practicing or acting during our shows, we have a very important one coming up," Inoue said.

"Yes, I remember you told me that when we started filming, I look forward to attending the show," Masako replied, politely.

"I'm sure you'll love it!"

"Masako! I need you over here!" Yamamoto shouted from across the set.

"Please, excuse me, Inoue-san," Masako said, bowing and turning off.

"Absolutely!"

"Father Brown, are you sure you don't need anyone to help out today?" A girl, with a very familiar face, brown hair and eyes asked, following the young priest around the parish house.

"I'm certain, Hoshiko-san," the blonde priest replied, as he continued to organize and dust the office of Father Tojo. "Today, we're just tidying up and having choir practice with the children for the services this weekend."

"Do you need help with the kids? It's been so cold, they haven't been able to really play outside," Hoshiko offered. "They are probably getting restless."

John stopped and thought for a moment. "Well, I'm sure the children wouldn't mind a new playmate," he replied, then looked at her. "What about the theatre you joined? Don't you have rehearsal today?"

"No, rehearsal has been postponed because of some medium with a T.V. show is there exorcising some spirit," Hoshiko waived her hand and rolled her eyes as she explained. "That's why I came over here, I need something to do so I don't interfere with creative genius or something."

"You don't think the building is haunted?" John asked, as he walked out and headed for the kitchen where he could smell Yukiyo making tea and supper.

"To be honest, I don't believe anyone who shows up with a camera and claims to see 'something beyond the grave!'" she added with a creepy voice. "Plus, I haven't experienced anything. They wanted me to do an interview for the show and explain some personal experience that one of the writers had scribbled on some notecards."

John laughed. "That explains why you have been here so often, so tell me," he said, offering her a cup of tea from the counter and headed for the living area. "Do you not believe in ghosts?"

Hoshiko sat down on the couch across from the young priest. She shrugged. "I mean, I haven't experienced anything, my brother claims to have done so many exorcisms, same with my father, meanwhile I wanted no part of the shrine, of the mount, I want to act."

"And what is the play you are starring about?"

"It's Yotsuya Kaidan," she said, noticing his confusion, she remembered that he probably had no idea what she was talking about. "I am playing Iemon Oiwa, the wife of Tamiya who has just had their first child. She is horribly disfigured by Oume who has fallen in love with Tamiya, by sending Oiwa a poison disguised as facial cream. Her plan is for Tamiya to see his wife disfigured and leave her because she is no longer beautiful. Basically, it works, and Tamiya ends up marrying Oume and then Oiwa accidentally kills herself as she goes to get revenge on her husband. Then her ghost terrorizes Tamiya into killing his new bride and Oume's grandfather."

"So you play a ghost, but you don't believe in them," John replied with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Hoshiko laughed, leaning back.

"How's your knee?" he asked, gesturing to her leg. "Last time you were here you said you hurt it during rehearsal."

Hoshiko just shook her head and rolled up her pant leg, revealing a pretty gruesome black and blue bruise that took up the same amount of space as a knee brace. "It's probably a good thing rehearsals have been cancelled until the T.V. people were finished, I can't exactly kneel," she replied, with a shrug she let the pant leg drop.

"Does the director know you hurt your knee this badly? Is that why he called the T.V. medium?"

She shrugged again. "I just tripped walking off the stage, Yumiko screamed that she saw a shadow push me or something and sent everyone into a frenzie." She feigned a frightened look and fake screamed. "A ghost! A ghost! Oiwa has cursed us!" She laughed at her own joke. "But her spirit to curse us is impossible, we all visited her gravesite to avoid the curse, if it is real."

"You don't believe in curses?" John asked, Hoshiko shook her head.

"Not really, I mean I don't challenge them, but I don't avoid them like the plague," she answered. "Visiting Oiwa's grave is a tradition for this play, most actors being superstitious, especially since we are performing a western version of this play. As opposed to Kabuki."

"Have you told your brother about this?" the blonde priest asked. Once again the girl just shook her head.

"He doesn't even know I'm in Tokyo, I'm staying with a friend during the show."

"You don't think he'd want to see your play?"

"No, it's not that, I just don't think he approves of me pursuing acting," she replied. "And with this whole ghost thing would just worry him. Me falling was nothing, just an accident. I've always been clumsy, growing up I was always getting bruises and cuts, this isn't anything new."

"So you won't invite him to your play?"

"No, I will, once I find out our official showdate," she answered. "It's been postponed due to the T.V. crew."

"I see," John replied, crossing his arms.

"Would you go?" he heard her ask quietly, he looked at her to see she was a little embarrassed that she even asked. "Never mind, t-that was inappropriate of me to ask. I'll just be going now-"

"Of course I'll go see your play," the kind priest answered, stopping the girl as she stood up. "Just be sure to take care of yourself, injuring your knee like that and still acting on it can't be easy."

"I-I will, thanks John!" Hoshiko replied, a huge grin on her face as she rushed out, fighting down a blush.

"Mai, can I talk to you real quick?" Riku asked, as Shouta was still trying to win over the little seven year old.

"Yeah, sure," she answered, as the boy led her a couple aisles down from the group. "What's up?"

"It's about Shouta," he said, making it look like he was browsing the different magazines for sale. "I just want you to be careful."

"What do you mean?" Mai instinctively cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"Look, a friend of mine knew him, he dated said friend's sister and it didn't end well," he said. "Just be alert with him, it could have been a one time thing, but just listen to your instincts."

"Okay," she replied with a nod, still a little confused.

Sunday 5:30 P.M.

Mai's apartment was empty as she was off on another date with Shouta. She didn't hear her phone ring. Whoever was trying to reach her must not have had her new cell phone number. "Moshi, moshi, you've reached Taniyama Mai. I'm not home right now, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!" her answering machine rang out as the phone's ringing ceased.

BEEP!

"Hey, Mai, it's Hozumi, it's about five thirty and I just want to make sure we are still on for today. I'll be staying at the office late anyway, but I'll give you a call again before I leave if you still don't show up."

Meanwhile, in his office, Hozumi hung up the phone and crossed his arms worriedly. "This is the second time in a row and third time this month," he said to himself worriedly. He shook his head. "I hope everything is okay with her."

No word from the cast this time! Sorry! I will update probably in October if not before then! Things are starting to get interesting! Please review!

Jaa Nee!