This chapter is written quite differently than others.  There are some first perspectives thrown in.  I don't point out whose perspective because doing so I feel throws off the flow of the chapter.  Hope it's not confusing and you enjoy.  :)

During the years she worked for SPR Mai had been notoriously late. She would press snooze on her alarm often and it would somehow miraculously never go off again. Why she never purchased another alarm clock she hadn't the foggiest but after Naru left she invested in a better one and had never been late again. She always questioned if the reason she bought a new one was in hopes that when he did come back he would see she had grown past the adolescent ritual of being late. She would hang up these thoughts immediately though and tell herself that it didn't really matter.

Now as a sliver of sunlight escaped through the slants of her bedroom blinds she found herself lingering in the cocoon of her blankets. She wasn't tired. She just wanted to relive how Naru had been kind and helpful last night before he had pointed out how late it was and left to get some sleep himself.

I grimaced as I pushed the door open, exiting the bathroom. I had splashed water on my face but I was still so ghastly pale after getting sick.

I really hope those images don't infiltrate themselves in my dream tonight. A shudder ran up my spine and I found myself crossing my arms over my stomach in some attempt to get warm.

I continued my way down the small hallway, hugging the corner of it that led itself into the kitchenette. There I saw a sight I never dreamed of seeing. Naru was at the stove attending to something that smelled heavenly from where I was standing. No, a domesticated Naru was definitely not something my dreams had ever conjured up. But now that I observed it for myself I knew that I would never strive to retrieve the image again.

It took a bare minimum of time to notice how his shoulders tensed for a moment. It must have been how his body reacted to the knowledge that I was behind him. "Go sit at the table, Mai. The soup will be done soon."

"Soup?" I was dumbfounded in that moment because I didn't even know Naru could cook let alone that he would tend to me after I had been ill.

"Yes, soup, now go sit down." I must have stood there stuck in confusion for a few more moments because Naru let out this growl of frustration. "Mai, sit down before I do something rash to make you!"

I bet I looked like a fish as my mouth opened and shut in confusion. Luckily his back was still toward me so he didn't see this display for himself. As I lowered myself into my seat I wondered at how exactly he would have made me sit down. I almost wished I had kept standing just to find out.

The gap of time between being told to sit down and the soup actually getting finished must have passed rapidly. Because one moment I felt like I was sitting there in silence the next I heard the clink of the spoon hitting against the porcelain side of the bowl as he ladled a serving. I blinked up at him as he sat it in front of me. "I didn't know you could cook."

"Mai, how do you think I survived living in Japan those few years? I can't manage chopsticks so I cooked for myself in my own apartment." I smiled up at him. He just admitted something he couldn't do. It was a moment to savor. However, this was something I did already realize for myself. It was refreshing to have him openly admitting it though.

"Still, you didn't have to do this. I am sure I have some leftover tori shoga gohan in the fridge that I could just heat up." In fact I was positive of it. I always made the dish once a week, and I made sure there was plenty of leftovers.

"Well, I wanted to do it. So, if you could start eating it and stop making a fuss about the situation that would be great." His arms crossed, and I nearly missed the light pink that infused across his cheeks. I wanted to ask if he was embarrassed that he admitted he couldn't do something, or if he was embarrassed to admit that he wanted to make me soup. I shrugged off concerning myself with it, because an embarrassed Naru of any flavor was definitely something I wouldn't see every day, if ever again.

I stared down into the bowl of soup in front of me. I didn't realize I had all these ingredients in my fridge and pantry. He had somehow managed to find udon noodles, chicken broth, carrots, daikon, and spring onion. I ladled a spoonful and blew on it delicately before sampling it. "Mmm, this is really good. Thank you, Naru." There was definitely no mistaking the blush that danced on his cheeks this time, and I found myself smiling in reaction to it.

We talked a bit more while I invited him to grab a bowl for himself. The discussion wasn't one of major import. But the camaraderie that I had thought completely vanished seemed to resurface. It made me feel warm all over. So I put the memory in my mental file safe and pulled it out this morning to dwell on it a bit.

Too bad I turned over and noticed the alarm clock's face told me I was about to be late to unlock the doors for business. I kicked off the covers that had entangled around my legs and ran for the shower.

Mai barely made it to the door on time to open the business to the public. It didn't surprise her that Naru, Gene, and Lin were already waiting on the other side of the glass. She smiled and waved at them as she turned the deadbolt. "Good Morning." She smiled and took an inventory of the faces as they filed in before she found herself frowning. "Where's Madoka?"

"Currently she's sleeping. In a couple hours time she will be waking up and heading to the airport so she won't miss her plane to England." Lin wasn't one to show emotions but Mai did noticed how he seemed to strain to keep said emotions off his face as he shared this news.

She found herself frowning. "Aw, I would have liked to say goodbye."

Noll cleared his throat. "BPR was suddenly short handed and needed her to assist them."

"Yeah, mum was rather insistent that she needed one of us to help by coming back to England." Gene's grin was a tad off this morning, and Mai thought perhaps he was being evasive about something.

"Noll dear, it's not that we can't get by without you four. It's that your departure was so abrupt that it left us short handed. If you had only given us a couple weeks noticed we would have been more prepared." Mother's reasoning, for once, was logical. Knowing her though she had something else in mind by trying to coerce one of us to come back.

"Noll, don't worry about it. I will go. You at least gave them a couple days notice. I only gave them hours notice at most." Before I could pause her actions to discuss it and perhaps convince her otherwise she was on her mobile making the arrangements. I glanced Lin's direction curious if he would persuade her to stay. My former tutor simply kept his hands tucked in his suit jacket. The action was something that I had seen often lately. I could barely make out the indentations of his knuckles as they pressed up against the outside of the fabric. The visual evidence had me convinced that he at least had the left hand, that was closest to me, clenched around something he had hidden away in his pocket. Odd, I wonder what he has tucked away there.

'You really didn't realize? You need to learn to be more intuitive about things, brother.' Gene's voice resounded in my head.

'What do you mean?' I felt my eyebrow arch as I turned his direction.

"Noll? Are you even listening to me?"

"Sorry mother, Madoka is on her mobile, and making arrangements as we speak."

"Oh," I could hear the frown in her voice. This is the moment I would decipher her ulterior motive for demanding one of us come back. "I had so hoped you would be the one to come back. You could have brought that former assistant of yours."

No way in Hell was I ready for Mother to meet Mai. I felt more than heard Gene's bellowing laughter pulse through me.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Mother. We just received another case, and there is no way we are free at this present time." I honestly hated how clipped and official my tone was with my mother. Sometimes it was simply easier to handle her in this fashion.

Before I could stop him Gene snatched the phone from me. He started going on about Atsuko, and how mother should come out to meet the whole team at some point rather than wait for us to go out there. I resigned myself to admit that eventually it was going to happen so I lost focus on their conversation and tuned them out.

I sat down at my corner desk, opening the case file folder. I glanced at the images that had made Mai so ill. I had been surprised they had turned her stomach. She had seen similar in her dreams and practically lived through situations like these herself. Well, maybe not exactly like these. I grimaced at one particular image. Okay, maybe I could see why these made her nauseous after all. I pulled the images out of the folder and put them in my bag. I reasoned with myself that just because I liked to have them for reference did not mean that the rest of the team had to subject themselves to seeing the ghastly images themselves.

The team members all filed into the meeting room. Without asking Naru situated himself at the head of the table. Atsuko squinted her eyes in annoyance and rolled them when she realized he wasn't doing it to position himself as lead on the case. It seemed to be more an act of habit. He was used to being the lead on the case so he just assumed the role.

Mai really wanted to point out that Naru's spot was not at the head of the table. But after seeing those images she freely gave over the reigns to him. She honestly didn't want to lead this case. She would have a hard enough time to deal with the dreams she was sure to have in the future.

Monk scratched his head. How did Naru become lead on this case? If Mai didn't want lead he could have taken it over. He had led most of the cases truth be told. Mai was often too busy with her dreams to function in multiple capacities.

Akane watched on curiously. She wasn't sure what a case at a psychic research investigative agency/orphanage might entail. She wasn't sure if she wanted to have any part of it. But John encouraged her to hear it out. "Who knows maybe you could be some sort of resource to help, yeah?" It was this statement that had convinced her to at least make an attempt to sit and listen.

Noll cleared his throat. Several pairs of eyes turned toward him. "Asagao Textiles had to close up one of their warehouses a year or so ago because some of their on site employees were disappearing. All of those employees were female." He stopped to stare each female of the team in the eye. "I am unsure if this is an exact count but according to this information a total of 7 have went missing. Out of those 7 only 3 have been recovered. The indicators show that all bodies suffered the same cause of death. Asphyxiation. The three victims also were each missing a body part when they were found."

"This sounds more like a serial killer than a ghost to me." Monk muttered.

"The case came to us because cops haven't been able to turn up any physical clues. Plus there has been documentation that some of the workers were hearing strange noises in one quadrant of the warehouse. No one has been able to justify a reason for said noises." Noll reasoned. "The job of SPR was never to solely research paranormal cases. It just turned out that way."

Lin cleared his throat. "BPR has been employed by the London police force on numerous occasions. Most of those times has been to help apprehend a killer."

Mai stood. "If most of you will remember the very first case where a majority of us met had nothing to do with ghosts. Of course we all thought it had at the time. But it didn't turn out that way. Plus, we have had plenty other cases where the culprit didn't end up being something paranormal." Plenty actually equaled a total of three but she hoped pointing this out would at least quell the potential argument.

"We also shouldn't fixate on serial killer being the only possibility. Several malevolent spirits were also serial killers in the past. Some have been documented to just pick up where the previous case left off."