And thus, the theme of Mai watching Lin having a bad time resumes. Though we're going with bite-sized pieces as of now. As usual, dreams are in italics.

.o0o.

Mai was both troubled and bored. Her phone kept her entertained for all of twenty minutes. The TV held her attention for even less. The combination of being in an unfamiliar place and the constant assault on her senses by the sterile white environment made it difficult for her to focus for very long. Not helped by the fact that, if she let them, her thoughts of everything that happened today would drive her up the wall.

Every now and then, she felt a warm pulse around her neck. It took her a few times to remember that Lin left a shiki with her. She poked and prodded her own neck, feeling the warmth on her fingers as she passed through its tiny body. She felt the heat move up from her neck to her face. She imagined an irritated cat, shifting to get away from the nosy child poking its sides. Now satisfied in the knowledge that she was not alone, she just began talking, just to silence her own rampaging mind. The conversations were one sided until she began asking questions about Lin specifically.

"What's he like when he's not brooding and shy in the corner all the time? Does he sing? Have you ever heard him sing? What does he wear when not at work? I can't really picture him in casual clothes. How long have you been together? Where did you first meet? Is he in a relationship? Would you hang around when he… you know?"

A little voice muttered in her ear with a voice not unlike Lin's. "Stop. No more questions about Master."

Mai's eyes widened. "You call him Master?"

The spirit didn't respond.

"Oh don't go silent on me now! Talk to me!"

Nothing.

"All right then, how about a game?"

And after trying game after game to get the little spirit to respond (with no results), she eventually landed on Eye Spy. It took some goading, but she finally got the little orange dragon to play along. She counted that as a small victory, despite the fact that they both sounded out of their minds with boredom (or in the Fire shiki's case, exasperation).

She checked the time. Seven minutes to eight. According to Ayako, eight o' clock was changing of the guard, both in the morning and at night. Night shift was when things would start getting interesting. She hoped. But maybe not too interesting.

Her mind wandered to the two men who came into the SPR earlier that day. She recalled their cold eyes, and her almost knee-jerk vision she had in reaction to seeing them. She had only ever seen Lin taken down once, and that was because he had saved her idiot self from getting squashed by an unsecured bookcase.

"What do you think?" she asked to the air.

Fire snorted. "I can't read minds."

"The two men who came in today. They didn't seem right at all. They weren't demons in disguise, were they?"

"Had they been, we would never have let them leave. The five of us, we're a team, and our Master, we trust him with our fangs. Demons stand no chance against us."

Fire went quiet for a moment, body stiffening. Mai could tell by the sudden cessation of waving heat on her face.

"What's wrong?" Mai asked.

There was no response, but the waving heat slowly did return. Mai wondered if the shiki had gotten a message from Lin. She looked toward the camera lens staring at her. If she weren't used to the SPR cameras, she would have been unnerved by its presence. She glanced toward the window and saw two bright dots staring her down in the distance.

Mai flung herself out of bed. She checked the time, quickly snapping her eyes to and from the clock. Thankfully, the apparition was still there.

"Time is 8:02. I see a ghost with two white eyes looking at me. It's got two arms, two legs… its shape blends in with the grass. It's standing just next to a big tree. It's lifting its arm. It's… it's not doing anything else. I'm going to wave to it."

The door to Mai's room flew open. In came Lin and Ayako. They joined Mai at the window. As soon as they appeared, the apparition turned around and vanished. Lin inclined his head. The warmth around Mai's neck suddenly left, leaving her skin feeling as though someone had touched her with ice.

"It was there!" Mai said, pointing. "It was right there, looking at me. It had its arm raised up, like it was waving."

"Are you sure?" Ayako asked. "Nothing was showing up on the camera in here."

"What about the camera pointing there?"

Lin shook his head. "The tree was in the way. We barely got any footage."

"So it knew how to avoid the camera? How?"

Lin leaned back, looking up. He clicked his tongue. "My shiki just reported that it could see the reflection of the lens from far away."

Mai tilted her head. "So…"

From behind, Naru's voice announced his entrance. "So the ghosts know what cameras do, and they actively want to avoid it. Useful but frustrating."

Lin opened his mouth to speak. Instead what came out was a sudden, startled cry. Eyes squeezed shut, he folded over his middle and fell to his knees. Naru, Mai, and Ayako turned to him, alarmed.

"Lin, what's wrong?" Naru all but roared.

Lin stayed hunched over and trembling for several more seconds, unresponsive. Both hands were pressed firmly into the left side of his stomach. Naru and Ayako knelt by Lin's side. When Ayako tried to touch his back, Lin swatted her hand away. His teeth were clenched, biting back what had to be pained cries. Mai stood in front of him, hands over her mouth, eyes wide. This was no vision. Lin was in real, genuine pain. To Mai, he stayed in that position for what seemed like minutes. In reality, it was seconds. When whatever pain gripped him subsided, Lin suddenly gasped for breath and fell forward, supporting himself with his hands. His panting quickly turned to deep breathing as he calmed himself.

"What happened?" Naru prompted.

Lin grunted. "Something attacked my shiki."

"Which one? One of the missing ones?"

Mai blinked. Lin's shiki were missing?

Lin shook his head. "No. The one I just sent in pursuit of what Mai saw. It's reporting that the apparition bit it. It was able to fend it off, but it was—we were unprepared."

"Are you okay?" Ayako asked.

"I'll be fine. The tether doesn't affect my physical body." Lin stood up. His expression was carefully schooled.

"Are you sure?" Naru said.

"Get me a piece of paper. My shiki can describe the apparition." Ayako nodded and ran out of the room, presumably back to base. Lin stood, breathing deeply. He must have still been in pain.

"Is it okay?" Mai asked.

Lin turned to her. He stared at her quizzically before realizing what she meant. "My shiki will need some time to recover, but it should be fine."

"At least now we can confirm that we are dealing with ghosts," said Naru. "No human could injure your spirit familiars like that."

To that, Lin nodded.

Mai kept her gaze low. "That looked like it hurt, though."

Lin stayed quiet.

Naru spoke next. "I'm going to call in Monk and John. Lin, I'm assuming you can't leave your shiki with Mai."

"Not the same one, no. I called back the other two when Mai reported the apparition. I can have one of them stay with Mai."

"Wait," Mai exclaimed. "Aren't some of your shiki missing?"

"Two," Lin said.

"You should keep the ones you have then," Mai said. "You need them!"

Naru looked from Mai to Lin.

Lin spoke. "One should stay with you. It's the best alarm system I have. Even if I'm asleep, they can alert me."

"No. I won't let you! I can't let you get hurt again! Not on my watch."

Lin folded his arms. "You have this backwards. You are on my watch. We're in the middle of a case, unrelated to the dream you had. Let us do what we came here for."

At that moment, Ayako came in holding a notebook and a pen. Lin took it and sat on the accompanying couch. He twisted his body so that he could use the windowsill as a desk. Inpatient rooms didn't have writing desks for obvious reasons, so Lin had to make do with this. Mai leaned over his shoulder as he drew, pausing every now and then to listen to what his shiki had to say.

When he was done, they were left with an unsettling image. A dark humanoid figure stood short, but not because it was hunching over. Its head was fused into its chest, creating a sort of grotesque hill between its arms. Its eyes were the same as Mai had seen earlier—two white dots that glowed. What was a new addition to this creature was its horrible grimace, a strip of white with jagged, square teeth stretching from non-existent ear to ear.

Its arms were too long to be human proportion. Like tree branches, they were thin and spindly, with five twig-like fingers branching off of its clay-like palms. Its feet were shaped as though they were nothing but skin and bone, except hidden inside of a stocking or a thin sock.

"What… what is that thing?" Ayako breathed.

"It's like a melted person!" Mai exclaimed.

Neither Naru nor Lin said anything, but Mai caught Lin looking off to the side. Perhaps he was asking his shiki if that was really what it saw.

"Your shiki," began Ayako. Everyone turned to her. "Was it attacked in self-defense, or was the spirit actively trying to harm it?"

Again, Lin paused, presumably as the little spirit explained.

"It believes it started as self-defense, yes."

"What does that mean?" Mai asked.

"Once pressured to fight, the spirit did not hold back."

"How strong would you say it was?" Naru asked.

"It's certainly not an outlier," said Lin. "Its strength was around average, maybe a little higher. It's difficult for me to gauge, as we were caught off-guard."

"So what do we do now?" asked Ayako.

Naru folded his arms and brought his thumb to his chin. "How many ghosts do you believe there to be?"

There was a moment of silence. Then Ayako perked up. "I can't say for sure. No patient ever reported seeing more than one ghost at a time."

"What do you think, Mai?"

And everyone's eyes were suddenly on Mai. Mai glanced back and forth between her teammates. "I only saw one of them…"

Naru made a vague gesture with his hand that Mai interpreted as go on. Mai glanced at the picture Lin drew. Those white eyes paired with that awful row of bared teeth… it was wrong, but not just in the grotesque sense.

"It… it's a monster."

The group was silent as they digested what Mai said. Mai blinked, suddenly aware of how bad that sounded.

"No, that's not what I mean. It didn't feel like it was a bad spirit, but you shouldn't get too close to it. You can't tell what it's going to do next."

"So sort of like a wild animal?" Ayako said.

"Sort of," conceded Mai. "I had a thought. If I try to dream, maybe I'll be able to see something, or better yet, communicate with it."

"You just said it's something to stay away from, but you want to try to talk to it?"

Mai stole a glance at Naru. "Maybe Gene will tell me something."

Naru closed his eyes and sighed.

"All right. Let's go. We'll leave Mai to her sleep."

"What should we do about the camera?" Lin asked as they walked out.

"We have to find a different hiding place," said Naru. "Ms. Matsuzaki, you said the ghosts never show up in the security footage?"

"That's right," said Ayako, closing the door behind her.

And just like that, the three of them were gone. Mai could still hear bits of muffled conversation behind the door, but it got fainter and fainter as they returned to base. Mai hoisted herself into the hospital bed. She hoped and prayed to whatever entity might be listening that she'd have a helpful dream.

Her mind was restless until she smelled the soothing scent of pine cones and evergreen trees. She looked around for the source. For a second or so, a serpentine green dragon flickered into existence. It was coiled up on her lap, staring at her with curious eyes. It resembled Lin's other shiki, the orange one. Mai let out a small, "Oh." That's right. Lin had said he would leave another shiki with her, despite her protests. What good would the little spirit do when she was dreaming? It couldn't go with her to the dream plane or wherever she went when she slept. Maybe it could fend off a threat to her physical body, but it was well established that their peeping-ghost problem didn't ever breach hospital walls.

"Listen, if anything happens, go back and protect your master, okay?" Mai said.

The green dragon appeared again, a deer-like ear flicking sideways. It shook its head slowly, and if Mai was not mistaken, it looked a little sad. Mai reached out to touch its snout, which it leaned into. The scent of pine and lavender wafted around her. She realized the shiki was attempting to lull her to sleep. It was working. Her eyes grew heavy. She turned off the light using the bed remote and hunkered down for an early night's sleep.

Mai regretted ever closing her eyes. When she opened them, she realized she was dreaming. The world around her was dark, save for right in front of her, in which Lin was chained to a cross. He was still wearing that same vest and tie from earlier that day, and from Mai's previous dream. His arms were stretched out to the side, chains wrapped around his wrists. His ankles were chained together, trussed to the base of the cross. His head and torso remained unchained, but with how tightly he was bound, he had no hope of freeing himself alone. The wooden cross itself was fixed into the faded ground, invisible to Mai's dream perception.

Lin's eyes were closed. His breathing was slight, but Mai could hear the slight rasp to each strained inhale. Mai stumbled forward, surprised that there was no barrier or anything to impede her steps. She reached up toward his face, cupping his chin in her hands. Lin's eyes snapped open. He glared at her with a venom she had never seen in anyone before, let alone him. Sure, he spoke hateful words to her that one time in the Urado case, but it was nothing compared to the actual genuine hatred he had in his eyes right now.

She didn't register the danger she was in until Lin twisted his head and tried to bite her hand. Mai staggered back, taking her hands away from Lin's body. He was still glaring at her, teeth bared, eyes fearful yet defiant.

"Lin, it's me!" Mai yelled. "Let me help you!"

Mai ran to his right arm. She tugged on the chains, but they wouldn't budge. She glanced over at Lin's face, noticing that while his eyes were still hateful, he was no longer snarling at her. It was like he was shocked that she would even be trying to help him.

Suddenly, Mai remembered why she even wanted to dream in the first place.

"Gene!" she called, out into the darkness. "Gene, where are you? Are you still here? Please come! I need you!"

"You're in the way."

Mai whirled around. Sure enough, she spotted Gene dressed in all black, holding what looked like a military rifle, muzzle pointed down. Gene's positioning was strange. He was standing to her left, not in line with Lin—more like ten paces in front of him, yet still way off to the side. Her instinct flagged this as a strange place for Gene to stand, but she couldn't for the life of her understand why.

Gene raised the gun and aimed it at Lin. Mai's hands flew to her mouth in horror. Lin was snarling again, this time, pointing all of his vitriol at Gene. Mai didn't know the details of how Lin and the Davises' relationship, but she knew it was the farthest thing from this: student and mentor staring at each other with not a hint of recognition in their eyes, one ready to shoot the other dead, and the other wild and hateful. It was to her further surprise when Gene turned the gun away from Lin, instead aiming off into the distance, way over to Lin's left.

"Last warning," said Gene. "Stand aside, or you will die." And yet, the muzzle was still pointed away from them, such that a fired bullet would just miss them.

"No," said Mai, stepping in front of Lin, arms outstretched. "I don't know what's going on, but whatever you're doing is wrong. You know it. I know it. You know him!" Mai gestured to Lin, who was staring at her with stunned yet still suspicious eyes. "Don't do this, Gene."

Gene closed his eyes, resigned. He let out a stoic sigh. He shouldered the rifle. Still aiming off into the distance, Gene fired. The sound of the shot echoed like a car crash in a tunnel, loud and invasive. Mai saw the shining bullet pass in front of them in slow motion. She was still wondering why the hell Gene hadn't aimed at them when the bullet suddenly exploded into dozens of metal shards.

Mai felt something slam into her shoulder. She fell sideways.

Gene, dressed in white, was draped over her on the ground. White orbs surrounded them. Neither Lin nor other-Gene were anywhere to be seen. He had pushed her away from everything, the gun, the bullet, the cross…

"Gene!" Mai shouted.

Gene sat up, kneeling in front of Mai. Mai sat up as well, face troubled. Gene stared at her with loving yet concerned eyes. This was the Gene she knew. Mai's eyes watered. She hadn't seen the moment of impact. Gene had made sure of that. She was grateful. She didn't want to know what a body ripped apart by shrapnel looked like.

"Gene, why would you…?"

Gene touched her knee. Making sure he had her attention, he shook his head slowly and deliberately. Mai took a moment to parse this out.

"It… wasn't you? That wasn't you?"

Gene nodded.

"That was Naru!"

Again, Gene nodded. That made sense in hindsight. Other-Gene was wearing all black, the way that Naru used to and still did on occasion.

Mai covered her face. "Why? Why am I having these dreams? What does this have to do with the case? And why won't you say anything?"

Gene shook his head sadly. It was like that sometimes. Sometimes he could speak; other times, he was mute. He looked over his shoulder and then looked back at her, a haunted expression on his face. Mai realized at that moment that he was as disturbed as her.

"Can you at least tell me about the ghost? The one that waved at me."

Gene looked at her, thoughtful. He then stood up. He pointed straight down. Mai followed his finger, looking at the ground beneath them. There was nothing of note. She looked back up at Gene, confusion etched on her face. Gene took her hand, guiding her to her feet. Then with a gentle, graceful motion, he brought her hand up and kissed it. It wasn't a kiss of romance—it was a touch of comfort. Mai's hand felt horribly cold as Gene let go. The white-clad spirit turned around and started to walk, slowly sinking into the ground like he was descending an invisible set of stairs.

"Wait!" Mai exclaimed. She ran after him. She reached him just as the top of his head sunk below the ground. She pawed the ground, but it would not let her pass. What on Earth did Gene mean by that!?

One by one, the white orbs floating around her faded. She looked around at them, watching them all go. Once alone in the dark again, the scent of blood and smoke filled her nostrils. A creaking sound came from behind her. All of the hairs on her neck and arms stood on end. She didn't want to turn around. She didn't want to see it.

She had to.

Behind her hung a mangled corpse chained to a cross. Gaping holes had been ripped through flesh and clothing, and blood streamed freely down to the ground. What was left of its garments had been irreversibly stained red. Its head was a mess of craters. Only its shape looked even remotely human. Despite this, the corpse's head still had a telltale lock of hair draped over the right side of its face.

Mai screamed loud enough to wake the dead. She only snapped out of it when two strong hands grasped her shoulders and squeezed. In front of her stood Takigawa, alarmed eyes staring straight into hers. She launched up, wrapping her arms around his torso, crying into his shirt.

"Mai?" said the Monk.

Mai sobbed for a good minute before pulling away from Takigawa, looking around the room. It was morning. Daylight shone in through the big window. Ayako and John were standing halfway between the bed and the door. Just as Mai was about to ask, Naru and Lin entered. Mai's eyes flew straight to Lin, dressed in a simple white shirt and black slacks. The others followed her gaze, and suddenly Lin had all eyes on him.

Monk turned back to Mai quizzically.

"What was it this time?" Lin asked, drawing Mai and Takigawa's eyes back to him.

Gaze lowered to the floor, away from all of their faces, Mai dutifully recounted. "You were chained to a cross. I touched you, and you tried to bite me. You looked at me with so much hate, like you couldn't stand my existence. I tried to untie you, but I couldn't. Naru came. Told me to get out of the way. He shot an exploding bullet…" Mai stopped. She tried to think of anything other than the mangled corpse tied to the cross.

She felt Takigawa's hand on her head. She used it as a grounding force. She looked up at his face, finding stunned horror.

"Were you hit?" he asked quietly.

Mai shook her head. "Gene came and pulled me away." She saw Naru fold his arms out of the corner of her eye. "I asked him what was going on, why I've been having dreams like this, but he didn't—"

"Wait, you've had other dreams like this?" Takigawa interrupted.

Mai nodded. "One. The night before last."

"There's a lot to fill you in on," Ayako said. "You and John."

"And this case?" Naru asked. "Did Gene have anything to say?"

Mai shrugged. "I asked him about the ghost we saw. He pointed beneath him and then walked into the floor, like he was walking down the stairs, but there were no stairs. I tried to follow him, but then I was back in that room, and I saw…"

She looked at Lin again, reassured that he was in one piece.

"What did you see?" John pressed.

Mai shook her head. She didn't want to say it. If she kept it inside, it didn't have to be real. But someone had to say it. Lin obliged. "Me. Dead."

A series of gasps flew around the room. "And if it was shrapnel bullet, I assume it was bad."

Mai nodded, brought to tears once more. Takigawa pulled her back into a hug. "I'm sorry," he offered.

Through her tears, Mai saw John lean over to Ayako and whisper something, hiding his mouth but keeping his eyes trained on her. Ayako shook her head and pointed to the door. Mai felt Takigawa nod, and then his warm voice rumbling in his chest.

"Go on, I'll catch up with you later."

Ayako nodded. She and John made for the exit. Following their lead, Naru and Lin turned around. Mai couldn't help the knee-jerk reaction. She reached toward him and called out wordlessly. Lin and Naru stopped, turning to her. Surprised by both her own action and their response, Mai pulled her arm to her chest and looked down.

Lin and Naru exchanged glances. They had a quiet conversation that Mai could just barely make out.

"Perhaps it's best if I…"

"Go on then."

Naru turned to leave. Lin walked over to Mai's bedside, keeping a watchful eye on her. He stopped in front of her and Takigawa, standing there sort of awkward.

"It's okay. You can go," Mai said.

"If you'd prefer, Takigawa can take this opportunity to get filled in," Lin offered.

Takigawa appeared torn between the logic of that suggestion and staying to protect Mai. From what, she didn't know. It wasn't like Lin was the source of the problem, but he didn't know where else to look.

"Who was the subject of her dream last time?" Takigawa asked.

"Still me," Lin said. He glanced at Mai as he said, "Ayako can explain."

"Do you know why?"

Lin shook his head. "That's why they left; to discuss it."

Mai's brow furrowed. "They didn't have to leave for my sake. It was my dream."

"Ayako probably just didn't want to add to your distress," said Takigawa.

"That doesn't matter. Am I part of this team or not?" Mai detached herself from Monk's grip and made for the small bathroom. "I'm going to get changed and go to base."

Lin nodded. He made for the door, leaving Takigawa to escort Mai.

Mai stood alone in the bathroom for several minutes. Why had she had that dream? It was only half helpful. Was this going to be her life from now until they found out the cause? Would she only be useful to the team if she endured the visions of her co-worker being ripped to pieces one way or another? She hoped not. Her mind went on overdrive. What if this meant she would have to quit the SPR? What if the dreams just chased after her, even after severing all ties? It was obvious that she needed the team's help to put a stop to this. At the end of the day, it was more accurate to say that Lin wasn't the one getting tortured here, even though that's exactly what Mai was seeing. Something was doing this to her specifically, and she needed to find out why.

She shook her head and finished getting dressed. Monk was waiting patiently for her. He put a hand on her back and walked her down the hall, where the rest of the team awaited their arrival.