Case 1 – Day 4 about 9:30 am

Mai sighed as she hung up the phone with Yasu. The man was still a boy in so many ways. Some days it was exasperating dealing with his tantrums. A cool breeze touched her shoulder, the cool touch of it reminded her of Sayuri and she turned expecting that to be who she saw. But the transparent form that was in front of her surprised her. His face held such sorrow and loss.

"Katsuo?"

As if his words were stolen from him he merely nodded at Mai. He didn't appear to be capable of maintaining a form like Sayuri. Unlike Sayuri's static frame, Katsuo's trembled and dissipated. Then it would reform in the flash of a few seconds. His mouth opened and shut as fear struck through his face.

Mai realizing that Katsuo was afraid he wouldn't be able to reach out to her quickly tried to calm him. "Katsuo, don't worry. Just show me what you want to show me."

Katsuo quickly began levitating through the building. It wasn't easy to keep up with his pace. But Mai still tried to regardless. He levitated through a back door that Mai somehow had never noticed before.

She pulled open the door expecting Katsuo to be just on the other side. It surprised her greatly that he wasn't. She worried over the idea that she may have lost him. Quickly, she scanned over the area around her. There was a huge empty yard before her. It struck her as unusual that the landscape was bare in such a vast amount of space. Then she noticed that about thirty feet away grew a huge mimosa tree.

When she looked at the tree she was struck with a myriad of emotions. Oddly enough the first was peace and tranquility. But the second was sorrow and despair. It was so conflicting she became confused. Then Katsuo's form shimmered back into existence underneath the tree. She walked up to him expecting to see his form fading back and forth once again but now it was a constant shape.

"Katsuo?"

"Yes, I am somehow not surprised you know me. You have seen Sayuri?"

"Yes, I've seen her. Forgive me for saying but you seem more sad then frightened. Does Shouta not trap you too?"

"Not, in the same way as he traps Sayuri. Sayuri has become his play thing. Unfortunately that is similar to the case it was in life before I rescued her. Or, I thought I was rescuing her."

"You couldn't have known that Shouta would come after the two of you and hurt you both the way he had."

"No, I knew we would have our share of difficulties. Regardless, I loved her. I could not just leave her to those circumstances."

"You were her prince and rescued her from a desolate life."

"Which brought her to an even more desolate death."

Mai sighed. "I'm going to help you. I am going to help you both. Plus the new family that wants to move in. I just haven't worked out all the details yet."

"I know one thing you can do for me."

"You seem to be more direct then Sayuri is. That's helpful."

If Katsuo could actually form breath then Mai would have felt the sigh as it expelled from Katsuo's body. "Yes, well, she has reason to not be so forthcoming. Shouta still can harm her. He has no power over me out here."

Mai looked around her confused. "Are you telling me that normally you can't enter the house?"

Katsuo nodded. "My spirit is tied to this tree. Normally I can only reach the back porch of the house. I am not sure how I was able to expend my energy to transverse through the house and find you. But I do not question when I am given a gift."

Mai heard a shuffle behind her and looked at Ayako as she walked towards her. She had just caught the tail end of the conversation. She smiled at Katsuo's form. "The spirit of the tree lent you some of his power. He has been taking good care of you for quite some time. He knew of the trouble that has been going on in the house. He saw the willingness to help in Mai's spirit. He wasn't able to keep your form for long but it was the precise amount of time necessary to lead Mai to come out here and see you."

"This tree spirit has been with him a long time?"

Ayako nodded in response.

"Katsuo, are you? Is your body buried beneath the tree?"

A sad look crossed his face. He of course knew he was dead. But knowing what had befell upon him was quite different then thinking about the fact that he was no longer in his own body. "The roots are probably tickling my nasal cavity by now. I watched as he dug the hole. He unceremoniously carried my body out here in a blanket. He didn't even bury me in the blanket. Once the hole was as deep as he wanted it to be he pulled my body from the blanket and threw it in the hole. I cringed as I heard the bones in my body break upon impact. I just hope he treated Sayuri's body with more care. He may have been sick and twisted but that is one thing I know with certainty. In his own sick way he had convinced himself that he did love Sayuri."

"I don't think the monster knows what love actually is," Mai stated.

Noll crossed the doorway and listened intently onto the conversation.

"What do you mean?" Katsuo asked.

"When you love someone you don't hold onto them when you aren't what they want. You let them go. You let them go because you want them to be happy. Shouta didn't know that what he felt wasn't love. It was obsession. Obsession is dark and greedy, just like he is. His greed consumed him so much that he himself became tainted with it."

Gene put a hand on his brother's shoulder. The words that left his mouth were quiet enough that they didn't reach Mai and Ayako. "Think she will realize that she just described what you did for her?"

"No, and I doubt she will ever realize it."

"You should point it out to her."

Noll didn't dignify his brother with an answer. He didn't want to strip away his mask and show Mai how she made him weak. At least not until he learned more about who she had evolved into in the past four years. He had already decided that even after this job was over he would not be leaving Japan. He had much more important things to conquer here then what was awaiting him back in England. He focused back on the discussion between human and spirit.

"Katsuo, do you know where Shouta buried Sayuri's body?"

"My guess is somewhere in the courtyard."

"I can ask the spirits of the sakura trees there."

"I don't think you have to, Ayako. I think I know where she is buried. I think she is buried under the sakura tree that grows by the pond. The pond that Katsuo found her in." Mai turned and looked at Shouta again. "We will reunite the two of you soon. I do believe this case is just about closed."

"What more are we waiting for?" Ayako asked.

"Yasu said he has a little more research to bring us. Besides, I have an answer to help Katsuo and Sayuri. That still doesn't help me conquer the problem that is Shouta."