In this chapter, the theme of Mai watching Lin having a bad time continues. Except this time, real-life Lin has a plan for how to, at the very least, try to get some answers on that front. About time too.

.o0o.

Of all the things Naru did not expect during the unloading process at two in the morning was for Mai and Lin to be so chatty with each other all of a sudden. Mai had been perfectly quiet in the van ride back, and Lin followed in his car behind them. But as soon as they met up in the lot to unload, Mai was an endless stream of questions, and Lin was responding without exuding an aura of frost and stoptalkingtomeplease. He wasn't fully explaining, which left Naru to jump in and fill in the gaps.

"So what if you went backwards on the Cycle of Destruction? Does that have a name at all?"

Naru opened the back doors. Step one was to bring everything out of the van where it could be brought up in relays.

"Cycle of control, Mai," Lin corrected, putting down a monitor. "It is possible, but difficult."

"What would happen if you attacked water with fire?" Naru interjected. "Use your brain for once."

Mai sent Naru the look she always sent him when being rude was his only crime.

"If you had enough fire, you could evaporate the water," Mai retorted. Out of the corner of his eye, Naru caught Lin nodding. Mai continued. "You mentioned earlier that a pair in elemental order are protected from weakness, but I only see how one could assist the other."

"They can protect each other. Literally," said Lin.

"Take Wood and Fire," supplied Naru. "Wood fuels Fire, yes. But what if they were attacked by Water?"

Mai paused to think. It was a few seconds too long, in Naru's opinion. Even for two in the morning. "Wood could jump in the way and drink all the water."

Naru nodded. Looks like she could rub two brain-cells together after all. He elected to put that insult away for future use.

Mai continued. "And if Metal attacked Wood, Fire could melt the Metal. And then if Earth tried to smother Fire, then Wood would drain Earth. But what about Fire?"

To this, Lin nodded. "That is the one weakness of the sequential elemental pair."

Naru turned his attention to his assistant. They had been over this entire subject before, but Naru was still shaky on what happened in this last scenario. He listened for the explanation.

"At that point, it becomes a matter of other qualities, such as brute strength or guile."

"So elements are immune to themselves?" Mai asked.

"I wouldn't put it like that. Fire on Fire only begets more Fire. Same with Water. But Earth on Earth would produce something of an earthquake."

A tectonic collision, supplied Naru's mind. Either way, same-elemental clashes were no good for any bystanders nearby. Naru wondered if the elemental cycle accounted for different sub-types of that element, such as saltwater meeting fresh.

"And steel on steel is an epic samurai duel to the death?" Mai said.

"Samurai are Japanese," Naru corrected.

"I know. I'm tired."

"Finish up then. I'll take you home."

Mai blinked like an owl. "You know where I live?"

"It's in your file."

Mai stepped back, suddenly quiet. Naru eyed her. She was clearly not saying something, and Naru was too tired to play mind-reader with the girl. It was Lin who acknowledged Mai's emotional shift. "Do you not want to go home?" he asked.

"It's just… I don't want to be alone."

Naru could connect the dots. "Because of your dreams?"

Mai nodded. Naru mulled it over. It was also clear what Mai was trying to hint at.

"I'm sure Ms. Matsuzaki or Takigawa would welcome you," Lin offered.

This time, both Mai and Naru shook their heads. "We'll bring the last of this up, and then you can come with us," said he. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lin sigh. It was quiet and small, but it was there.

Step two of unloading was bring all the equipment inside, making sure that at least one person guarded the stuff at all times. It was technically possible to leave this entire process for later in the day, when the sun was up, but they had already started, and thieves never slept. So they grabbed and ran.

Step three was to finally bring it up. Now that the stuff was inside, the three of them could actually run an effective relay. It was only when Mai, loopy with sleep deprivation, nearly dropped a camera that Naru told her to stop and catch a nap on the couch.

Returning the equipment without their third was nothing new, but it did take Lin and Naru fifteen minutes longer to do so. And when they brought the last of the equipment up to the office, Mai was already fast asleep and dreaming, if her sleep-talking was anything to go by. Naru brushed off her mutterings as nothing important, but Lin held out a hand, stopping him from leaving. Turning his attention toward the girl, Naru realized that she was having a third instance of a nightmare.

"N… st…p. Dndoit…" Her words slurred together, but it was clear she was distressed.

Lin looked at Naru. It was clear he wanted to wake her. Had this been any other situation, Naru would have let her sleep to gather information. But with the way things were progressing, it was all too possible that she was having a useless vision of Lin getting burned alive or something. Naru sighed and walked over to her. He took her shoulder and shook her.

"Mai, wake up."

She didn't wake, so he shook her harder. And when that didn't work, he took one knuckle and drove it into her sternum—a self-defense trick that Lin had taught him, good enough for non-malicious drunkards.

"Mai, wake up!"

To this, Mai did wake. She nearly headbutted him, rising up to sitting. A loud, "No!" exploded from her mouth, and she reached over, grabbing Naru's shoulder. Naru tensed, before realizing that she was clinging to him, rather than attacking him. He couldn't see her face, but her defeated, "I want this to stop," told him everything he needed to know.

Naru sat down on the couch with her. He had no idea why she was having such dreams, why now, and what they could possibly be warning her about.

"Is there anything you want to tell us?" Naru started.

Mai shook her head. "I wish I didn't see any of it."

"Was there anything important we might need to know?"

Mai took a deep breath. She shook her head. And then she stopped. "Wait. Lin was speaking in Chinese. I couldn't understand what he… you… were saying. But I knew it wasn't Japanese or English."

To this, both Naru and Lin cocked their heads.

"Monk was the one… this time around. He had you tied from the ceiling and was saying how he would burn your body to ash and then have your wife clean away the ashes."

Lin's brow furrowed.

"Do you… you don't, do you? Have a wife?" Mai asked.

Lin shook his head. "Did it look like dream-version of me could understand what Takigawa was saying?"

Now it was Mai's turn to shake her head. "You just stood there, glaring. It was only when Monk showed you a picture that you began shouting at him. I saw the picture, but I couldn't make out the person on it. Like it was blurred out. But you could. And then Monk threw kerosine on you…"

Naru touched the top of Mai's head, bringing her out of her flashback. She pounded her fists on the couch. "I wish I could make it stop."

Lin put a finger to his chin. "Mai, can you recall what you were wearing? In your dream."

Mai paused. "Why?"

"Just tell me."

"I was wearing what I'm wearing now." She gestured down to her hooded jacket and capris. Again, Lin nodded. He turned to his desk and pulled out a piece of paper. He grabbed a pen and began to write. When he was finished, he entered the server room. Curious, Naru leaned over the paper. It was all Chinese characters, none of which he could read. When Mai asked, he said just that. Lin quickly returned, holding two pieces of paper that Naru couldn't make out. He folded them up in the larger paper and handed the whole package to Mai, along with a pen.

"Put these in your pocket," he instructed.

"What? Why?" Mai asked.

"It's a long shot, but if you keep what you're wearing in your dreams, then perhaps you can keep this."

Mai unfolded the paper. She recoiled. Naru walked over to peer over Mai's shoulder. Folded in the paper were the security photos of Nakamura and Saito, their cold eyes still somehow threatening even though they weren't looking up at the camera. Mai lifted the photos away from the page and then looked quizzically at Lin.

"What's it say?" Mai asked.

"It essentially explains who we are, and it asks some basic questions. If this dream version of me is really me, if he comes from the forest or the hospital, if he is a dead spirit, and if he recognizes these two men."

Mai blinked, as did Naru. Naru folded his arms, putting one hand to his chin. "You're treating this as though the dream entity is a separate sentient entity."

Lin nodded. "What have we to lose? This isn't the first time your dreams have been spirit memories. You said that you were able to interact with my dream version previously, yes?"

Mai nodded slowly, clearly trying to remember. And then her nodding sped up. "Yeah, the last dream I had. Before this one. Both you and Naru responded to me. Kind of."

"All right, we'll try it," Naru said.

"Wait," said Mai. "You want me to go back? You want me to dream again?"

To this, Lin's expression softened. He appeared torn between apologizing and explaining further, but he couldn't seem to formulate the words. Naru took over.

"We've been unable to put a stop to your dreams, likely because we haven't found the cause. So our next best idea is to interrogate the dream directly. You're going to have to do this, as neither of us are in your head."

Mai looked down, still unsure. "You want me to do this now?"

Naru turned to Lin, whose face was just blank. Naru sighed. "We'll take you back to stay with us. You should at least have a bed for this work."

"You have a guest room?"

No, but Mai didn't need to know that. Naru just resolved to take the couch.

"Let's go," he said, in lieu of a response.

Lin led the way to his car, and he drove them back to Naru's place. It was modest, enough for the both of them to have separate bedrooms. There were hardly any decorations—just enough for the two of them to live without getting in each other's way. As soon as they got into the condo, Lin gave them a look that Naru learned to mean, you good? He nodded, Lin nodded, and the tall man retreated to his bedroom. The door closed with a bit more force than usual. Naru was reminded of just how much his tall assistant had been through these past three days, so he deserved to slam a few doors.

Naru opened his bedroom door. Luckily, all of his guardian figures made sure he knew to make his bed. He gestured to it. The sheets were moderately clean, which he assured Mai.

"Wait, am I taking your bed?" Mai blurted.

"Just take it. Unless you want clean sheets?"

Mai opened her mouth, but unless she had a genuine protest, Naru wanted to hear none of it. Something about his exhausted and done expression must have gotten through to her. She relented, dipping her head.

"You have the paper and the photos?" Naru asked.

"In my pocket," Mai said.

"Do try to remember them. The less you have to suffer, the better."

Without another word, Mai slunk off to Naru's room and shut the door, much more gently than Lin. Naru made his way to the couch. It wasn't the most comfortable thing, but it wasn't a rock. He did have standards, thank you very much. Besides, he was exhausted. He was out within ten minutes.

Mai dreamed. She was walking straight. The world around her was dark, save for the slight brown glow of the floor beneath her. It was like a spotlight was constantly on her, lighting just enough for her to see the ground.

"Are you sure you want that one though?" John's voice carried over the darkness. Mai whipped her head around, finding the priest suddenly beside her, dressed casually. She tilted her head at John's question. Seeing her confusion, he clarified. "I mean… he's probably got all sorts of infections now. Not that I'm doubting [-]'s work. Not at all."

To this, Mai froze. What just happened? It was as though John's speech had been fizzled out, like radio static had censored out the name. "Whose work?" she tried.

"[-]? You know her. Now, this is between us, but I don't like the work she does."

John stopped walking and turned away from her. Mai fully turned to him, seeing a rusty, iron door come into view. A putrid smell seeped out from under the bottom. It wasn't terribly strong, as both of them could stand there and not become completely overwhelmed with the urge to gag. John still held a rag over his face.

"Like I said. Not doubting her work, but he does smell infected. I think you'd be better off choosing a different one. That won't give you every STD in the book."

Mai blanched. Was John saying what she thought he was saying? As if on cue, the door creaked open. Mai peered inside the tiny cell. She knew she would find Lin, but she was unprepared to see him in such a horrible state. He was sitting on the floor, up against a wall, legs sprawled out straight in front of him. He was wearing his slacks, vest, and tie, the same thing he wore in her first dream. His abdomen was cut open from the sternum down. Blood was seeping out, like a waterfall flowing from a crack in a rock. It pooled around his thighs. Even worse than that was the yellow foam-like liquid that crusted around the edges of his wound. His breaths were short and hitched, like even the smallest movement pained him, which no duh, it did. And yet, he was somehow still conscious and staring at them. Hate and exhaustion spun like a merry-go-round behind his eyes.

Behind her, John turned his head away. "All right. Have fun, I guess. He looks like he'll be dead in a day. I'll tell [-]."

The priest disappeared. The door remained open.

Mai paced toward the man, breath held. Was this a continuation of her first dream? The aftermath of what dream-Ayako had done to him? But what was the point?

"Lin?" she asked, finally forcing herself to breathe. The stench was still the same, not stronger or weaker than when the door had been closed. Thank goodness for small mercies.

Lin showed no sign that he recognized her, or even that she had said his name.

Mai knelt down beside him. Lin tried weakly to get away, but he only barely managed a wince and a soft cry.

"What did they do to you?"

Predictably he didn't respond. She put a hand on his shoulder. He opened his mouth and choked out something in Chinese. She didn't have to understand a lick of it to know that he told her not to touch him. He said something else, which was completely lost on Mai. It was full of hate, but also full of despair, and for some reason, Mai wanted to cry at the foreign words. If only she could comfort him.

And then she remembered. The letter. She leaned back and reached into her hoodie pocket. And thank every god she didn't believe in; real-Lin's note was there. She opened it. The words were still there, not altered and not fuzzy, as dreams often made things. Even the picture of the two men were there, faces clear. She held out the note to dream-Lin, who just managed to take it in a weak hand. His eyes skimmed it over, and Mai hoped that he wasn't too far gone to comprehend it, or that it wasn't too dark in here to read. She should have brought a flashlight.

A metaphorical light went off in her head. She had her phone in her back pocket. She opened it. Naturally, there wasn't internet or anything like that, but all she needed was the flashlight function on it. She turned it on, and Lin froze in horror. Mai followed his line of sight, which was glued to her phone. He was staring at it like it was going to eat him. It was like he had never seen a phone before. She gestured to the writing. Lin still wouldn't take his eyes off the phone. Did he think she was going to hurt him with it? Mai leaned back and held the phone close to her chest, indicating that it was hers and precious. Once more, she nodded at the paper.

Lin finally turned to it and read. Mai saw the twitch of his brow as he read, hints of confusion in his almost dead face. And then the first answer came. He shook his head. Mai strained to remember what the first question on the paper was. Instead, she committed Lin's response to memory. Another confused twitch. And then resentful acceptance. He glanced down at his gaping, pus-filled wound and glared up at Mai as best he could. Mai looked away from his hate-filled eyes. Her own eyes fell upon the pictures of the two cold men, which had fallen on the floor. She picked them up and held them in front of Lin's face. Lin's lips curled into a weak snarl. With great effort, the dying man lifted his arm and pointed.

At first, Mai thought he was pointing to her, but when she stepped aside, his hand did not follow. She turned around, to see that he was pointing at the open door. Indistinct shadows passed back and forth. People moving around, Mai supplied. A gurgled groan caused her to turn around. Lin had pressed his fingers into his abdomen, getting fresh blood all over his hand. Breathing deeply, he circled something in blood on the paper, and then wrote with large, sloppy strokes. Once finished, he leaned back, panting. His eyes were clouding over, and his hand loosened, dropping the paper. Mai swiped it up before it could become completely blood-soaked.

With a dawning realization that she was about to watch Lin die, Mai lunged for his arm and crammed her eyes closed. She grasped his hand tight. Even though they weren't close, nobody deserved to die like this. And as Lin took his last breath, the scene faded away, and Mai was left in the empty dark.

Mai woke up crying. Not screaming. Just crying, devastated. It took her several minutes to remember where she even was, or to register the gentle hand rubbing up and down her back. It was the sound of a door creaking open that brought her fully back to the present. She looked up. There was Naru, seated next to her, staring down at her with worried, exhausted eyes. It was still dark out, so she must have only caught a few hours of sleep, just like him, and the even more worse-for-wear Lin in the door.

"Did you remember?" Naru prompted.

For once, she was grateful that he skipped the comforting. She didn't want to linger longer than she had to. Business was the perfect distraction. She nodded and reached into her pocket. All three of them froze when they saw the bloody edge of the page, the edge that had fallen into the mess spilling out of dream-Lin's body. Quickly and frantically, Mai unfolded the paper, finding the bloody circle and writing still there. Without a word, she held it out to the two men. Lin flipped the light switch and took the page.

"Lin Weiguó," he said. "That's his name."

That… made almost as much sense as Mai electing to kiss Naru here and now. At their confused silence, Lin flipped the page around and showed the writing. "He circled my family name, but my given name is crossed out. He wrote Weiguó instead."

"Is he a relative?" Naru asked.

Lin shrugged. "I'm not aware of anyone in my family having that name."

"In any case, it's clear to me that there's someone else sharing your headspace," Naru said. "We'll call Masako and John in as soon as it's bright."

"What about the rest of the questions?" Mai asked, alarmed that Lin had already turned to leave, and Naru didn't appear far behind. Lin gave a dismissive wave.

"Later," Naru said, with the voice of a teenager who needed his sleep already. It was then that Mai realized that her dreams were starting to affect her teammates. Perhaps not to the degree that they were affecting her, but she had now kept her boss from what little sleep he could get before he had to start his day in a few hours.

"Mai. Sleep."

Mai whimpered. "And if I dream?"

"Then you dream. We will try to put a stop to this later today. Excuse me. I'm going to make a call."

Well, the boss could dismiss himself politely after all. Naru stood up and left the room. He disappeared out of sight, but Mai heard him speaking softly into a phone.

"Miss Hara? It's an emergency. We believe Mai to be possessed and actively coming to harm… Eight o'clock? Fine. Meet us at my address. Not the office. We'll be closed today."

Well, it was part of their protocol to switch up the voicemail messages and the door signs when they were out on a case, and seeing as how they only got back a few hours ago, Mai doubted they had time to change it. Naru walked in front of the doorway again. He and Mai exchanged glances. He nodded, and then Mai nodded. Naru turned back around, and Mai listened to the sound of him dropping back onto the couch.

Mai curled up in the bed, breathing in Naru's scent. She knew it was most likely that if she fell asleep now, she would be subjected to yet another nightmare. It was strange though, that even when suffering through such a vision, her body still got the rest it needed, save for the thrashing she may or may not have done while asleep. It wasn't until a few minutes had passed that she realized that she could hear the faint sounds of gentle rain and flowing water, and her body felt as though she was drifting on a floatie in a hot spring. Through a mind fighting sleep, she wondered if someone had left a faucet running. That's when a blue dragon faded into view at the foot of the bed, curled up like a cat, staring at her with blank eyes. It vanished as suddenly as it appeared, though the calming sounds of water did not. Mai had no idea if this meant if Water had forgiven her; Lin could very well have just ordered it to comfort her. She hoped that wasn't the case, and she hoped that Lin was kind enough to spare both of them that situation.

"It was my idea," Water conveyed telepathically.

Mai's eyes widened. The questions of forgiveness were on the tip of her tongue, but her instincts told her it was a bad idea to try and breech the subject. Not now, not so soon, when the pain of Wood's loss was still fresh. So instead, she nodded her thanks and let her eyes close.

In the room next door, Lin listened as his Water shiki lulled Mai to sleep. Once she was out, he dialed his father and hoped he would pick up. To his fortune, or perhaps misfortune considering the time, his father answered.

"Do you have. Any idea. How early it is?" The elder Lin's voice carried all the grit from being suddenly awakened.

"I'm sorry for calling at such an hour," Lin said as quietly as he could. He supposed this could have been done later, but, "There's something of a situation that has to be dealt with as soon as possible."

"Are you sure you're still satisfied over there?" In Japan, was the unspoken part of that question. "If they're waking you before dawn on the regular…"

Lin rubbed his forehead. Cut to the chase before Father rambles into the wee hours of sunrise, Koujo. "Is there any record of a Lin Weiguó in our family?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line. Lin hoped it was because his father was still out of it from sleep, and not because there actually was—

"I… don't know. Certainly not in our immediate family. Why do you ask?"

"The name came up in some research I'm doing."

"I can check our records later today. At a reasonable time."

"Thank you, Father."

There was yet another pause. "Are you sure everything is all right, son?"

Lin wondered if Father could hear the exhaustion in his voice. Then he realized that the hour of the call probably tipped him off to something being amiss. His father wasn't really in the business of the supernatural. Lin had learned most of what he knew from his grandfather, and then in his own personal studies. But fathers were still fathers, and he wouldn't be surprised if his father could tell that something was wrong with him, personally.

"They will be," Lin offered.

"I don't like the sound of that."

"This case has been rough, I'll admit."

"This case sounds a bit personal. I don't want any surprise Japanese showing up at my doorstep, literally or virtually, you hear?"

"Yes, Father. Sorry to wake you. Good night."

Like a civilized person, Lin let his father bid him good night and hang up, unlike some raven-haired, Japanese English teenagers he knew. He hadn't exactly wanted to bother his family like that, especially since Japan's time zone was ahead of China's, but this whole Lin Weiguó business had him uneasy. It wasn't the same unease as the woods, thank every god he didn't believe in, but if this case was now linked to his family somehow, he wanted to know sooner rather than later. Then again, his wasn't the only Lin family in China. Not by a long shot. It just seemed a little too much of a coincidence, paired with just how much he had endured in the past few days. His shiki had never heard the name before; he didn't need to ask them. If it rang a bell, they would have told him, unprompted. Hence the call to his family.

With that out of the way, Lin sat back down on his bed. He knew he should try to get more sleep, but thinking about all of the things that had happened brought back his worry about Earth and Metal. They were still in the wind, somehow, some way. Like Wood, there were invisible tethers linking Lin's spirit with theirs, as built by their contracts. But just because the tethers could be seen, didn't mean they reached out in the direction of the tied entities. They were symbolic. When Lin didn't know where his shiki were, the tethers just reached out.

A ring of warmth wrapped around his neck, like a scarf. Fire was trying to soothe him.

"The tethers aren't broken, Master," Fire said. "Earth and Metal are still alive."

"Not much could hide a shikigami from its master," Lin countered.

"I would assume you're saying not much in the abstract sense. Because if you knew the few things that could do it, we wouldn't be sitting here twiddling your thumbs."

Lin glanced at Fire's serpentine form. Yes, only he had thumbs.

"If you had to hide a spirit, what would you do?" Lin asked.

"I'd either scent mask or make a barrier cage," Fire said. At Lin's silence, Fire continued. "A special coat over the spirit form that hides all of its own identifiers and to some degree confuses it. And I take it you know what a cage is."

"Could this have happened purely by accident?"

"Like what, Earthling and Metalhead rolled in mammoth dung and it went to their non-existent brains? I suppose, but any self-respecting spirit would want to wash up immediately."

Lin tilted his head to consider Fire's response. It appeared that whatever was behind this disappearance was intentional. But who would do this, and why?

"If you were to try and hide from me, how would you do it?" Lin asked.

"Same thing. Scent masks and barriers. I'd preferably pick the mask, because barriers make it hard to move around."

Once again, Lin paused to think. His mind was being delightfully uncooperative and blank. He shook his head. He was too tired to think anymore. His shiki wisely stopped talking and let its master go back to sleep.

By the way, the one knuckle on the sternum works pretty well for keeping harmless drunks off-ya.

In terms of the story's plot unraveling namely the whole Weiguó business, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about where this is going and how it'll affect things. In general, the way I usually write is that I'll post the current chapter when I've already written or gotten close to the end of the chapter after it. That way, I can backtrack if things are going a certain way for better or worse. So far, it's working okay. Might be too late to backtrack now...