Day 1: 12:37
Lin

White. Lin saw white overclouding his vision. Pain and red as the blood oozed out of his body and onto the office floor. His shiki's hovered over him the moment he was shot. They are bound to obey his orders and to protect him at all costs. He could hear his shiki's whispering to him as he slowly drifted in and out of consciousness.

"Master is injured..."

"What are your orders master?"

Lin was choking on blood at this point. Even if he could stay awake long enough to get an order out, he probably would only get incoherent gurgling out of his mouth. He attempted to put pressure on the wound from his hands and lean to the injured side. He blacked out once more. Almost like a very long blink. The room spun around him as he heard the whispering again.

"Someone is coming master..."

"What do you wish of us master?"

More blood was coughed out of his mouth and he ended up on his back. He heard the noise of footsteps and orders from a voice that sounded miles away.

"Oh god...I need backup at...this is...-ackup and an...-bulance at...sir...sir! Can you hear me...sir!"

Lin opened his eyes again and saw his shiki's hovering over the head of a police officer leaning over him. "One...stay...one...return..." he was able to get out finally. If one stayed they could tell the others everything that happened. In a swirl of white light, his shiki's separated and disappeared. One of them returned to his body, and the other one disappeared into the air.

"Sir don't try to talk much," the police officer said, "Can you tell me who did this? Your call mentioned a group of men?"

Lin nodded, "They were here... for Noll"

"The office is empty. Sir was there anyone else here?" he said.

Lin's eyes shot open. They got Noll, but they took Mai too? "A girl...is she not here?" he breathed out raggedly. His head felt heavy, but he had to know. He had to find them.

"No there isn't. Who is missing?"

"Kazuya Shibuya...and Mai Tani...yama"

"We'll find them sir."

Lin reached for the phone in his pocket and pulled it out. He unlocked it and handed it to the police officer, "Call them," he coughed, more blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

"Call who?" the policeman asked.

"Our team," he replied. His eyes started to roll back into his head and the world felt hot, heavy, and dark. He didn't keep a lot of contacts in his personal phone, but he did keep the names and numbers of their team members in it. Any one of those numbers would, by word of mouth, would be able to get the entire team together. While he would be out for the count, they needed to take his place. They knew the equipment better than the local police and would be able to start the hunt much faster. Every second counted.

The world was feeling further and further away from him. Darkness completely shrouded his vision and this time he couldn't wake himself up. Time was against them all now. He hoped they could catch up.

-o-

12:48
Takigawa

Takigawa's head hurt a lot. One bad old woman joke and Ayako decided that his head would look so much better with a large welt on top of it!

"Come on! How was it that bad?!" he protested.

"Do you want to hear another reason?" she asked rearing back her arm for another punch.

"No no! I'm good!" he said shaking his hands in front of himself.

He had decided on a spur-of-the-moment get-together with Ayako. She had been taking on extra shifts at the hospital while Naru recovered from their last case and until he chose another one. Ayako, to make up for this, had started working a bare minimum of 60 hours a week at the hospital. This was one of her, very rare, days off; so Takigawa decided to treat her to lunch.

It was at that very moment as they were walking from the restaurant they were eating at to his car that his phone began to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID. It was Lin. He answered it immediately.

"Hey Lin! Naru finally chose a case for us?" he asked.

"Naru?" an unknown voice asked him, "I'm sorry, is this Houshou Takigawa?"

"Yes, who is this and why do you have Lin's phone?" he asked stopping in his tracks. His voice went serious and Ayako stopped in front of him.

"Sir, this is Detective Yojiro; I'm with the local police. Do you work for Shibuya Psychic Research?"

"Yes I do, what is going on?" he asked. He was starting to get worried. Ayako looked annoyed not knowing what was going on.

"Sir we are at the SPR office right now. Lin Koujo has been shot and taken to the local hospital. It also seems that Kazuya Shibuya and his assistant have been taken by some unknown assailants. We would like you to come down to the office to answer some questions. Lin said you have a team that can help?" the detective explained.

The blood on Takigawa's face drained out. He could feel his hand trembling as he gripped his phone next to his ear. 'Taken? Mai and Naru taken? Lin's been shot?! What the hell is going on?!' he thought.

"Hello? Sir? Are you still there?"

"Yes! Yes, I'm still here. Yes, we are all part of a team. We have myself and four others that work with the other three. We are about 20 minutes away by car. We can be over there shortly. I can contact the others on the way to the office.

"Thank you, sir," the detective said hanging up after that. Takigawa looked at Ayako.

"We need to get to the office. Now," he said moving quickly to his car.

"Do you want to explain what is going on? What is happening?" Ayako asked sounding irritated at this point.

"Lin's been shot, and Naru and Mai have been kidnapped," he said going into a jog. He reached his car and fumbled in his pocket for his keys, "Call Yasu and the others. Tell them to drop whatever they are doing and meet us at the office," he said hopping into the car and firing it up. 'Damn it, you guys. What the hell is going on?' he thought angrily.

-o-

The duo made their way to the office in about 10 minutes. Takigawa had broken about eight different traffic laws, but they were going towards the police-infested office. They could send him the bill. On the drive, Ayako called John who said she would pick up Masako and Yasu before coming to the office. When they got about two blocks away from the office, they were stopped by the sheer amount of police cars, vans, and CSI, all crowding around the office blocking the street. A police officer guiding traffic walked up to the car, so he rolled down his window.

"I'm sorry about the abrupt in traffic sir, we are redirecting all traffic to-," he said as if he had said this a lot today.

"We work in the office that the man was shot in sir. We were asked to come in by Detective Yojiro?" he said.

"One second," he said and then stepped back to say something into a hand radio. After a few seconds of anticipation, the officer came up to his window, "Alright we're going to let you through. Park near the side entrance and make your way up to the office."

"Thank you," Takigawa said and was ushered through the police line.

They practically ran into the building, up the stairs, and into the office. CSI and policemen were going in and out of the office so much that it looked like a scene from a crime drama. The two paused a moment at the door just taking everything in. This was real. This was truly happening. This wasn't some trick. The smell of blood wafting into the hallway confirmed the scene they were watching.

"Ah! Are you Houshou Takigawa?" a voice interrupted their thoughts.

He looked and saw a man in a suit walking towards them. He was an old man with salt and peppered hair. It was long, possibly shoulder length, and slicked back with grease. His face was drooped and showed wrinkles of time, stress, and a severe lack of sleep.

"Yes I am, and this is Ayako Matsuzaki. The other three members of our team are on their way," he answered to the man, "Are you the detective I spoke to on the phone?"

"I am. Would you two come with me, please? I'd like to talk with you two in private," he said turning around and making his way over to Lin's office.

As they followed him to the office, Takigawa could briefly see the pool of blood near the couches on the floor and a CSI taking pictures. The office was trashed, things turned over, vases broken, the smell of burnt...something mixed with blood was surrounding the air of the office. He looked back towards the front door. There was no damage to it. 'Whoever came in and did this didn't forcibly come in. Why shoot Lin and take Naru and Mai though? Were they people they knew? This isn't right...' he thought.

Going into Lin's office they found a work desk, cabinets, and on the desk three computer monitors, and a younger-looking policewoman in the chair behind it. This room seemed to be in pristine condition.

"Any luck on surveillance?" Detective Yojiro asked.

"None sir. This tech is beyond anything that I have seen or used. I can't get my way past his encryption," she said.

"Another reason I asked you here is this," he said looking at the two. "We know the office has surveillance cameras, but we can't get past Mr. Lin's encryption to get to it. We were hoping since you worked with him that you might be able to unlock it so we can see who we're dealing with."

"Well, I know we can't ourselves, but Yasu might be able to do it. He's pretty smart when it comes to that tech stuff," Ayako said.

"Who's Yasu?" Detective Yojiro asked.

"He's a member of our team. He's our backup tech expert and researcher," Takigawa explained, "He's on his way with the other two members of the team."

"Is Lin OK by the way?" Ayako asked very concerned.

"He was taken to the General Hospital downtown. We don't know of his current condition," he replied, "Do you two know of anyone who might've wanted to do this?"

"Well Naru certainly isn't the nicest person in the world, but not to the point of kidnapping. I mean we help people. I don't think he had many enemies if any at all," Ayako explained.

"What about Koujo Lin? Does he have any enemies? People he might've made angry?"

"Well to be honest with you, we don't know much about Lin's past. But if they wanted to hurt him, wouldn't they just kill Naru and Mai? I mean why take them?" Takigawa answered.

The detective took note of his answer. "What about Mai Taniyama?"

"Oh god no!" Ayako exclaimed, "She is one of the nicest girls you could have ever met!"

Detective Yojiro sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Is there any reason someone might want to kidnap the two and shoot Lin? Anything they own, people they know? Anything about them that someone might want?" he asked sounding frustrated.

Ayako and Takigawa looked at each other, "I mean, we all work in Psychic Research. The only thing connecting them at this point is their psychic abilities," Takigawa explained, "Mai doesn't have much, and it almost killed Naru the last time he used it. There's no reason for this to be happening!"

"Yes, there is," a familiar voice said at the doorway. They turned to find Masako, John, and Yasu standing in the doorway. Masako who had said this stepped into the office.

"Masako!" Ayako sighed with relief.

"The T.V. Medium? You work with Masako Hara?" Detective Yojiro asked.

"Yes, we all do," John said.

"So what's the connection?" Takigawa asked, "Naru and Mai don't have that much to offer."

"Well, Mai certainly doesn't. Not yet anyway. Kazuya Shibuya however... has a lot to offer. I promised I wouldn't dare reveal who he is, but given the situation, I can't keep this a secret for long. Kazuya Shibuya is only one of his names. His real name is Oliver Davis."