A tamer, less hectic chapter. A calm before a storm. Time to take a breath, and let a few key characters get their heads on straight.

Mai does recon. Naru does strategy. Everyone debates the usefulness of the buddy system. Lin continues to have a bad time.

.o0o.

The team back at base was halfway explaining the entire situation to John when a great flash of blue light interrupted them. A shrill scream filled the room. Everyone leaped to their feet save for Masako, who had been thrown to the floor. She curled up, covering her ears like it was her last line of defense from some unseen force. The blue light materialized into a form that Mai had seen once before. A three-foot tall female humanoid with fin-like arms appeared in front of Masako. As soon as her form solidified, she shrieked and cried, lunging around the room, jumping over tables, chairs, and desks as though she had gone mad. She only stopped when she crashed head-first into the server room door, nearly taking it off its hinges.

Naru was the first to recover from the shock. He stood up and approached the collapsed entity, hands open and gentle.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

The spirit sat up. Her face was truly elfish, with slanted, dark blue eyes and a tiny jaw that came to a point at the chin. She opened her toothless mouth and began to speak, except the words were literally Greek to them.

"What's going on? What is that?" Ayako asked.

"That's Lin's water shiki," Mai said. "It's a naiad."

"Aren't naiads Greek?" Masako asked.

Mai nodded. "I don't know the story, but we met back in the woods, when we were sent to investigate." When Wood died, but Mai left that unsaid. "But I don't understand why it's… it looked like this on the spiritual plane, but never in this one."

"This must be its original form," Monk said. "And if it only took its original form in the spiritual plane while under contract…" He walked over to the spirit. Naru, sensing his approach, backed away. Monk held up his hands. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

The spirit probably didn't understand him, considering that it only spoke in Greek, but she did stand up and face him. She held up her webbed hand and opened her fingers. At first, Mai was confused, but then she realized, "It's a peace gesture!"

Takigawa glanced back at her and then nodded. He touched his hand to the naiad's palm. His hand dwarfed hers. The naiad stayed there, accepting Monk's touch. Monk held up his other hand, speaking a hushed chant that Mai couldn't really make out. The center of the naiad's chest glowed. It radiated out like webbed scars, up to her neck, her belly, and wrapped around her sides to her back. Takigawa lowered his head and swore. "Lin's tether to this spirit was severed," he said.

"What!?" Naru blurted. "But how could… who could have…" He rounded on the spirit. He shouted something in English. The naiad took a step back, hand raised, wary and ready to strike him should he become too unruly.

"Kazuya, mate, I don't think she can tell you that," said John, thankfully in Japanese. Right, John the Australian understood English perfectly. "We don't know whether or not Lin's alive, but we have to work on the basis that he is."

Naru put a hand to the wall. His shoulders heaved as he breathed. The boy was on the verge of panic. Perhaps now was a good time for Mai to try again.

"Naru, I can…"

"Yes. Go. Stay safe."

Mai turned to Monk. "If you need to move my body, try to leave a note so that I'm not totally lost."

Monk stared at her. Then he shook his head, realizing what she was talking about. "You're going to find Lin? How?"

"I'm hoping she can guide me," Mai said, gesturing to the naiad.

Monk still looked unsure. "Be careful, kiddo."

"I will," said Mai.

"If worse comes to worst, let's use the office as our rendezvous place," said Ayako. With no protest from Naru, Mai nodded. She made her way to the couch and laid down. She remembered Naru's instructions from last time. She imagined stepping away from her own body. She floated up. A sense of weightlessness took over. The room became fuzzy, as though she was looking through a filter. She looked down. Her body was a meter below her.

To her right, Masako was sitting up and staring at her directly. Masako nodded. Mai nodded back. She turned to the naiad. Perhaps in this form, she had a way to communicate with her. The naiad watched as she floated closer.

"Hey. Can you show me where Lin was when this happened?" she asked.

The naiad stared at her blankly. Well. That wasn't going to work. It seemed more and more that Lin's shiki had been using him as a built-in translator. How he had been able to communicate with his would-be shiki in the first place was a mystery. After all, one of them had been a freaking panda.

Masako seemed to understand the problem. She honed in on a piece of paper on Mai's desk. She drew a simple, crude picture of Lin (she was no artist) and showed it to the naiad. Then she pointed at Mai. The naiad opened her mouth. She scrunched her nose, perhaps trying to find the words, and then she nodded. She reached forward and grabbed Mai's ethereal wrist. Mai had no choice but to follow.

The naiad leaped through the wall, pulling Mai along. The world turned upside down and vanished, leaving her in the spiritual realm. All she could see were the outlines of structures, buildings, roads, sidewalks, vehicles and the like. The rest was gray like a chalkboard. White orbs floated here and there, as was the natural traffic in the spirit realm. Still standing in front of her was the water naiad, eyes deep and sad.

"We can talk now, visitor," she said.

Mai should have known something like this was possible. Her mind shuffled through all the questions in her head, and it landed on the most trivial one. "Visitor?" she echoed.

The naiad blinked. "I'm sorry. I am no longer bound. I called humans visitors when they came to my pond. But we're not in my pond now, so it is merely a habit."

"Where is Lin?" Mai asked.

The naiad shook her head. "The last thing he told me was—"

A voice echoed from somewhere.

"I'm being relocated by Fusei. I don't know where. If I don't make it—" And then there was a twang. Mai gasped. That was Lin's voice, playing like a recording. The naiad must have been doing this.

"Where was he before this?"

"I can take you," said the naiad. "But before we go, do you have any questions for me?"

Mai hesitated. Something sounded off about this naiad's question. "Why are you talking like we won't get to speak again?"

Water kept her gaze still. "I am no longer bound. I will go home after I help my lovely visitor."

Mai couldn't comprehend what the spirit was trying to tell her. Was she really saying that the tether was the reason she considered Lin a friend? Something icky twisted in her ethereal guts. When she had laughed and said that friendship was better, was that all brainwashing?

"Are you saying that you can't be friends with someone if you're not bound to them?"

The naiad tilted her head. "Friendship is human nature." Her voice was becoming lighter. Less grave. The spirit's demeanor was changing in front of Mai's very eyes. The naiad put a hand to her wounded chest. "I am no longer human nature. I bear no ill will toward my lovely visitor, but I no longer feel the desire to be near to him."

Mai's mind was bouncing like a lottery ball in a hamster wheel. Did Lin trap this naiad? Did he really bind this spirit against its will?

"Why did you go with Lin as a shikigami?"

The naiad didn't look offended at the question. In fact, she looked more and more emotionless as each second ticked by. "A frog that is ruler of the pond believes she knows the ocean. My lovely visitor offered to show me the ocean." The naiad shrunk in on herself. "I do not like the ocean. It is cruel."

Mai's heart ached for the nature spirit. Her heart also ached for Lin, who was about to lose another one of his familiars. True, the naiad wasn't going to be dead, like the panda spirit, but she would be gone. Free. Happy being forgotten. Mai reached out and touched the naiad's small webbed hand. Water's elfish ear flicked, and her eyes widened. This was the first spark of emotion that Mai had seen on the immortal since crossing into the spirit world. Could she feel Mai's emotions just from being in contact with her?

"I'm begging you, naiad. Please don't leave us. Not until we save Lin. You were separated cruelly, and he deserves to give you a proper goodbye."

The naiad stared at her. Her ears flicked like an insect's antenna. "Forgive me, visitor. I did not mean to make you sad. It is my nature to be influenced by the feelings of those who touch my waters, and therefore, it is my nature to have none when I am at peace."

Mai looked down at both of their hands, still intertwined. The naiad curled her fingers around Mai's palm. She smiled. On her elfish face, the smile was almost infantile. Mai had no time to parse out what the naiad was trying to say, or whether this meant that she had been bound against her will. The naiad grabbed Mai's sleeve again. She pulled Mai back through the spirit world into the mortal realm. They were hovering over the street. Mai could see into the SPR's office, but nobody was looking at her.

Without warning, the naiad leaped, pulling Mai along with her. Mai wondered how the water spirit was flying, but upon looking at her pointed feet, she saw tiny sprinkles of vapor forming almost invisible platforms as she ran. She was running on the moisture in the air. The fact that she had no shadow now meant that she had made herself invisible to humans. Good. They needed to stay hidden.

The trip was fast. The naiad had led her to Eastern Village police station. She pulled Mai in through the ceiling. Mai immediately spotted an officer carrying an AED. Had she needed to breathe, she would have gasped. There were only two reasons the AED would be out: maintenance or a heart attack. She hoped it was the former. She followed the officer until he arrived at the case that housed the machine. He was putting it away, not taking it to someone in need. Mai was unable to tell if the machine had been used or not, so she kept looking around for any sign of Lin.

A tug on her sleeve caused her to turn around. The naiad pointed at the floor. She then pulled Mai through it. They emerged in an underground room with several jail cells all lined up against the wall. One of the cells was still open. Something glistened on the floor, thanks to the light coming through the window. Just in front of that open cell was a tiny plastic button from a shirtfront. Mai stooped down next to it. She reached out. Remarkably, she was able to pick it up. Inspecting it close, she became more and more determined that it belonged to Lin. The pieces just matched up. Someone or something had severed his connection to the naiad, and that had pushed him to the brink of death. Someone then ripped his shirt open for CPR, detaching the button. Mai was glad she didn't breathe while projecting, otherwise she would have been screaming in rage.

She pocketed the button and looked around for the naiad. The water spirit was over to her left, warily standing out of Mai's reach. Mai wanted to send the naiad back to tell the rest of the team, but she couldn't communicate with it in the mortal realm. Instead, Mai steeled herself. She looked around, trying to locate Lin in the present. The naiad appeared to understand what she wanted. She grabbed Mai's sleeve and took her back up through the police station. They continued going up until they were hovering high above the building. The naiad took Mai's head in her hands and turned her directly toward the parking lot. Mai frowned. The naiad thought that Lin was here, in the parking lot. She supposed it made sense. Considering that he had need of an AED, she figured they would want to bring him to a hospital or something.

Police cars were coming in and out. Police were getting in and out of said cars. A few people had pulled up, probably with complaints of their own. Lin was nowhere in sight. Had they been too late? Was Lin already gone? Now that neither she nor the naiad could sense him, their area of search had become impossibly large. Lin was a needle in a haystack a mile wide.

"Gene! We need Gene!" exclaimed Mai.

Her voice echoed, as it always did in her spirit form. Her cries fell on deaf ears. Gene did not come. Where was that damn spirit when she needed him?

It became clear that Gene wasn't coming. She wanted to sob, but she couldn't. She had no body with which to produce tears. What else was there to do? She couldn't astral project forever. She had to return a failure. A devastated look on her face, she turned away from the naiad and began the long float back to the office.

Mai returned to an office in chaos, as was starting to become a normal occurrence. She picked up on Naru's voice, yelling something about Yasu. And then her eyes drifted over to the chair near her head, where Yasu was sitting patiently.

"Yasu!"

He turned when she called his name.

"Hey Mai," he said.

The room lulled, all attention on her.

Naru crossed the room. He stood beside her, looming over her. "Well?"

Mai shook her head. She was still too groggy to be tactful. "I lost him," she said.

"What does that mean?" Monk asked.

Mai started to sit up. "We went to the Eastern Village police station, which was where Water said he was before they got separated. But then Lin told her that Fusei was relocating him, and then they were cut apart. I'm sorry, Naru. I was too late. I didn't see him at all. I don't know which car took him or where they went."

Finally, the tears that had been wanting to flow finally had release. Mai couldn't help it. She felt someone rubbing circles on her back yet again. This time, she recognized the touch as Monk's.

Naru stepped away from the couch and turned to Yasu. "Do you still want to be involved in this?"

Yasu remained inscrutable. "Mai. Do you know if Lin's alive, at least?"

Mai sniffled. "I don't." Then she remembered a key thing about Naru's abilities. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the little plastic button that she'd picked up in the station. She held it up to his face, and his eyes widened. "I think you can find out, though."

Ayako put a hand to her mouth. "Is that…?"

"I think so."

Naru reached out. His hand stopped. He hesitated. And then he grabbed the button. The team waited for twenty agonizing seconds. Naru closed his eyes with a sigh. He put the button in his own shirt pocket.

"He's alive at least," Naru said.

"Don't sound so disappointed," said Monk.

Naru ignored that comment and turned to Yasu. "If you're going to be here, you'll accept the reality of what could happen to all of us."

Yasu waved his hand. "If this was really an international government cover up, you'd think we'd be given a lift to the situation room, rather than them sending super-secret goons to us, don't you think?"

Naru cocked his head, crossing his arms. "Don't think you can infer anything from what they have or haven't done."

"Such observations might be crucial though," Yasu returned. "Because think about it. If it was really imperative that they kept this mystery operation a secret, you'd think they'd do a better job of talking about it where nobody else could listen in, or hell, tap the security footage."

"I'm not going to debate this with you," Naru said. "It's pointless."

"This just sounds more like organized crime than organized government."

Monk frowned. "Human experimentation isn't really the Yakuza's thing though, right?"

Yasu's eyes bulged. "Human experimentation!?"

Oh. Naru hadn't told him that? Naru shot Monk a death glare that could have dropped him right then and there. Mai was reminded of the phrase, if looks could kill. He kept his glare on Monk until said monk uttered a tiny, "I'm sorry. Forget I said that."

Naru sighed. He turned back to Yasu. "What I was trying to say was that I need you to research the land that Eastern Village was built on, including Ms. Matsuzaki's hospital grounds."

Mai glanced at Ayako. She expected the redhead to protest, but instead, she saw her with folded arms, nodding along.

"What am I looking for?" Yasu asked.

"We have to be careful. Since you now know that this case involves secret human experimentations, anything that fits that bill should raise a red flag. At the same time, be sure to look for anything that seems unusual, even if it has nothing to do with it. We can't let our biases get in the way of information filtering."

Yasu nodded. "Right-y-O, boss."

"And Yasu, if anyone asks?"

"I'm a student doing research, nothing more," said Yasu.

Mai frowned. Were they really trying to pull an, if you get caught, we've never heard of you?

"It's for my own safety," Yasu explained, noticing the concerned look on her face. "This way, I still look like my hands are clean of whatever pie you've got your fingers in, at least when I'm prowling libraries and the deep, dark corners of the internet."

And he said all that with a smile on his face. Mai couldn't help but let his sunny attitude lift her up slightly. She had been in desperate need of lifting, and this was a welcome respite.

"And how do you want me to keep in touch?" Yasu asked.

"In person, tomorrow."

Mai frowned again. "But doesn't that defeat the purpose of him pretending he doesn't know us?"

"That's only for when he's doing research. I know you've been dealing with a lot, Mai, but I would appreciate it if you tried to keep up."

Aaaaand there was the obligatory Mai-is-dumb dig. But was that just typical Naru teasing, or was he trying to bring some normalcy to their lives right now? He was observant; maybe he saw Yasu's playfulness and its effect on her, and he wanted to help? Nah. That was giving the idiot too much credit.

"All right, so where will I meet you?" Yasu asked.

"Here," Naru said, showing Yasu a piece of paper. "Memorize it. Don't write it down."

"What if I wrote it down and then ate the paper?"

Naru paused, a scowl on his face. He didn't dignify that with a response.

"What about the rest of us, Naru?" John asked.

"Yeah, put us to work!" Monk exclaimed, making a show of rolling up his sleeves.

Naru shook his head. "I'll need you all back and rested tomorrow to help me load the van." Right. Lin wouldn't be here to help. "We'll be taking everything with us."

"Everything?" echoed Ayako. "With everything we've already learned, don't you think our investigation phase is pretty much over?"

"We know the broad strokes," Naru said. "Not the specifics. There's no way to know what individual grudges these spirits still have."

Monk cocked his head. "If you're saying we might have to exorcise these ghosts one by one…"

"What if we just set the whole site on fire?" Mai asked. "We did that for the Urado case."

Ayako let out a dismissive snort. "Except those woods were alive, fire retardant, and not surrounded by miles of residential area."

Mai deflated. Yeah, Ayako had a point. Besides, it wasn't like they could just commit arson willy-nilly. They'd need to get some people in on it, some of whom might very well be on Nakamura and Saito's side.

Naru clapped his hands together, regaining the focus of the room. "I will keep you updated if anything happens, or if I get a vision." He tapped his pocket.

"Hold on, Naru. Are you sending us home?" Monk asked.

Naru nodded. "There isn't much more we can do today. I just have to remind you all not to do anything stupid between now and tomorrow morning."

Mai watched Ayako and Monk exchange glances. She knew they didn't live together. Ayako lived alone, as did Takigawa. Naru would be returning to an empty apartment. Mai didn't know where John was staying, and she was less sure about Yasu.

"What's up, kiddo?" Monk asked, honing in on her discomfort.

Mai clutched her sweater sleeve. "I just… I don't want to go back to my empty apartment."

Monk touched her head. "You're staying with me, remember?"

Oh, she had forgotten that. "What about everyone else? Ayako, you live by yourself. John, Masako, Yasu… And Naru."

She tried not to forget the shattered look in Naru's eyes that he immediately tried to hide by turning away.

Yasu knew exactly what to say. He clapped his hands. "Sounds to me like we need to employ the buddy system!" And to everyone's surprise, he lunged for Naru's arm. "I of course will bravely brave the wilds that is our dear Kazuya's apartment."

"No," said Naru.

"I'm sure I can handle whatever state your apartment's in—"

"I mean, you shouldn't be seen with us until tomorrow."

To this, Yasu let his jokester persona fade. He let his silence do the asking.

"For your own safety," continued Naru. "You are one of the last of us that has not been fully implicated, Monk's slip of the tongue aside. If something happens to us, we need you on the outside."

"Yeah, but what if you're wrong?" Monk asked. "What if they're listening in right now, and the moment we release him into the open, they grab him?"

Yasu held up a hand. "I would prefer not to be grabbed by strangers."

Naru rubbed the bridge of his nose. The pained expression he was trying to hide said it all. Monk may or may not have been right, but to send Yasu out would be to take that chance, roll that die. Nothing was certain except what they could see.

"Our presence isn't necessarily preventative," Ayako added, just to complicate matters. "Being together only provides immediate knowledge, and more immediate responses." Mai recognized Ayako's doctor side talking. "Naturally, timing is important. Acting sooner rather than later is better. But you still do have to weigh the differences. What will our presence change, if they do come for him?" Ayako provided the air quotes around that they, and Mai realized that she was still on the fence about whether this was a government conspiracy or something smaller.

Naru turned to Yasu. "How do you feel?"

Yasu tilted his head. "I feel like my chances of getting got are directly proportional to how confident we say we are." In other words, saying it'll be fine would just be tempting fate. "At the same time, I trust you. If you think your plan is the best plan, I'll go with that and meet you there tomorrow."

Naru and Yasu locked eyes. Naru nodded at Yasu, and Yasu flashed him a sunny grin. "Don't worry. I'm sure everything will have gone to hell in a handbasket by tomorrow. Later." And with that, the college student turned tail and left.

The entire room's focus shifted to Naru. "Are you sure about this, Naru?" Monk asked.

"No," returned Naru.

"What does Yasu know?" Mai asked. "About the case, I mean."

Ayako answered. "Only that Lin isn't here, and there are shady figures with us in their crosshairs. And that there was human experimentation, but I'm sure he wasn't supposed to learn that from us."

"What if his research gest flagged? If they were able to catch Lin from just a phone call…"

"Well, Mr. Old Man here has had some good points already," Ayako said, nodding in Monk's direction. "We don't know exactly what combination of things caused this. I personally think we should remain on our guard, but we're gonna burn ourselves out playing this 4D chess game."

"The price for a misstep could be quite steep," John said.

"Right. But are we considering that all this I-know-you-know-I-know is the misstep?"

Naru spoke next. "I don't think this discussion is useful. Let's decide on night teams and call it here."

One by one, the rest of the team began to nod, save for Mai, who had now counted at least twice the amount of times that Naru had tried to end the debate about who, what, and why they had been hired.

"Well, Mai's coming with me," Monk said. "That way, she can deal with her unwelcome visitor with friends."

Oh right, Mai had forgotten about Weiguó in all the commotion.

"It stands to reason then that Masako and John should stay with Mai," Naru said. "Their abilities are complimentary to the situation at hand."

"Are you volunteering to be my houseguest?" Ayako asked, an eyebrow raised. Naru didn't appear fazed, but Mai picked up on the split second hesitation.

"You should stay with Monk," Naru replied.

"What about you?" Monk asked.

"I'll manage."

At this, Mai stood up. "Naru, if you're alone and something happens, what happens to the rest of us?"

"If you use your brain, you'll realize that nothing can happen to me, because I am head of the SPR. My name is on the business. If they take me down, they don't get our help."

"And if they decide to do that anyway?"

"Then we were doomed from the start."

"Why do you want to be alone so bad?" Mai exclaimed. Naru didn't look like he would be answering that any time soon, but Mai still held up her hand. "No, wait. I don't care. I don't want you to be alone right now. No one should be alone when they're going through what we are. If you won't come with me, I'm going with you. You can't talk me out of it."

Naru held his stare. The look on his face became more and more vacant. Depressed. Defeated. Mai didn't know how to put it. Eventually, the boss spoke. "Suit yourself." He then turned around and entered his office. The room was silent as the door clicked closed. Mai didn't even turn back around. She just stared at the closed office door. Why Naru would want to isolate himself now was beyond her. Mai, who was so open and used to others seeing her vulnerable, couldn't imagine choosing to rely only on herself for support. There was no mistaking it. Naru needed support. He didn't want it, but he needed it. She wondered when the last time anyone gave him true support was. And then she thought of Gene. The answer was probably Gene. Which meant the answer to Naru's current situation was also likely Gene. Was Naru sealing himself off, afraid that anyone might ever become as close to him as his brother was?

"Mai?" tried John.

Mai ignored him. She crossed the room and entered Naru's office. Naru was standing at the window, and he turned to face her once he heard her enter. Mai closed the door. She was sure this wasn't something he'd want the rest of them to overhear.

"Get out," Naru said. There was hardly any bite in his voice. Just an even, flat tone.

"We will never be Gene."

Naru froze.

"We can't ever take that from you. But the ability to love is infinite. You can love us just as much, just as uniquely as you love him. We want to love you back, to help you, but you make it so freaking difficult! And you do that because of Gene, don't you! I'm here to tell you to shove that back where it came from, get your head out of the ground, and let us in!"

Mai's body was pumped with adrenaline. She had blown up at Naru many times before, but she had never aimed for such personal, sensitive targets. Such a gambit could very well cost her her job and her relationship with the idiot scientist. She watched for any sign of emotion, but Naru remained standing still. His face was an unreadable wall. He wasn't lambasting her or throwing her out, but there were also no visible chinks in his armor. Mai thought. Perhaps this was a sign that she was on the right track, but she still had yet to touch the true issue at hand. Her mind raced to figure out what it could be. She went through what could possibly be the key part of his and Gene's relationship, brain spewing ideas like a broken video tape, when suddenly the answer slapped her in the face.

"I can't promise that you'll never lose us," she began gently. Naru's jaw loosened, and his mouth opened just slightly. Bingo. She had it.

"To love is to lose," Mai said. "But I think it's much better to love and lose than to never love and only skim the surface. Those who never let themselves love, who never got the opportunity to be loved—they are the true losers. And…"

She almost asked if Naru would have rather known Gene and lost him, or never had a brother in the first place. She realized that in this state, he might very well answer the latter, just in a haze of clouded thought. So she pivoted.

"And I know what it feels like to wish you never knew the ones you love, because you think the pain of losing them is just not worth it. But I can tell you, Naru." She pointed to her chest. She, the orphan, who was old enough to remember both her parents. "I can tell you that everyone has the strength to do it all over again."

Naru fell back against the wall. His brow was turned up, and he was biting his lip hard enough to draw blood. His legs refused to hold him upright, and he slid down the wall until he was seated. He rested his arms on his knees and bowed his head, ducking away from Mai's line of sight.

Mai sighed and gave a fond shake of the head. She had made him hear her, and judging by the short, shallow breaths that he couldn't control, she hit the nail on the head. Now all she had to do was let the lesson sink in. She approached her lovable narcissist and sat next to him. She put her hand on top of his, and she sat with him as he quietly cried.

Eventually, he and she stood up. She didn't count the minutes. Oliver wiped the wetness from his eyes, but he couldn't hide the puffy red. Mai took him gently by the wrist and guided him toward the office door. She pulled it open, and he stood behind her, looking off to the side. The rest of the SPR had taken more comfortable positions in the office, but they were clearly keeping an ear open for this moment. They all turned to her when they heard the door. No one commented on Naru's disheveled appearance. As was usual, Monk was the one who knew how to break the silence.

"Soooooo…. Sleepover at Naru's?"

Mai turned to Naru. Naru glanced over in their direction, shy yet not hiding away. He gave a slow yet deliberate nod. Mai smiled.

"Sleepover at Naru's."

For a seeming never-ending number of hours, Fusei inflicted wound after wound on Lin without even raising a finger. The wounds were invisible, as were the strikes that placed them there. The floor was as clean as it had been when he was first thrown in here. Lin had denied that he was Weiguó. There was no point in denying that he knew of Weiguó, or asking if Weiguó had been a favorite chew toy of Fusei's. All Lin knew was that Weiguó wasn't here. He was with Mai, but no way in hell was Lin ever going to tell Fusei that. For each bout of defiant silence, Lin was rewarded with yet another invisible sword piercing some part of his body, leaving no mark, just pain.

He had known that this job, protecting Dr. Davis, would come with a risk of grievous injury. Protect him at all costs, was his directive. He just chose to interpret that as being the boy's battle mage, not his sacrificial lion. If it came to it, if there really was no other way, then of course he would sacrifice himself for Naru's sake. He just never expected he'd have to withstand torture for Mai's sake. He supposed that, should Mai come to harm, Naru would experience significant distress. Despite his callous demeanor, Oliver had come to care a great deal for… well… everyone on the team. Lin's protection of the team was a secondary directive, which tied neatly into his first. He just hoped, through the haze of pain, screams, and (he hated to admit it) tears, that somehow Naru's deal would be honored, and that he would be reunited with his friends tomorrow.

Well, the plot bunny wave has come to an end. I'm still determined to update on every date that is divisible by five. But I think the flurry of chapter uploads is over for now.