Title: We Are the Brave

Genre: Horror/Supernatural/Romance

Pairing: Mai x Lin (later on)

Summary: Four years after bringing his brother's body back to England, Naru returns to Japan, but not for the reason the SPR gang had hoped. As they continue to solve cases, they find themselves with a case that hits close to home. "Please help…I don't like the dark."

It's been four years since Naru (Oliver Davis) and Lin had left for England, Gene's body in tow. Leaving behind a rag tag team of paranormal investigators, who have become a constant variable in the two's life. Without looking back, they had left those, whom they could label as friends, family even, and leaving behind the one person that was going to need their help the most. Now back in Japan, Naru looks to bring back the gang and to re-open Shibuya Psychic Research. With Lin and Madoka tagging along for old time's sake, they continue to search and look up each member with an offer they could not refuse, hopefully.

•.•

It has been four months since their surprise return to Japan, and it had been a month and a half since they rallied up most of the team. However, it seemed as if one was still missing. The one person that Naru, though he would not admit it aloud, hoping to have his favorite tea maker back on as his assistant. Unfortunately for him and the others, Taniyama Mai was nowhere to be found. Not even her high school friends knew of her current whereabouts. It seemed as though she disappeared the moment she graduated from high school.

Sitting in the lounge area of the SPR office, Naru surveyed those in the room. Madoka was chatting with Ayako about some cosmetic line that had recently entered the public. Yasuhara still kept up his ways whenever he was around his beloved Bou-san. Said man was trying to pry the now twenty-one year old off of him. John, now twenty-three, was trying to pacify Bou-san when it looked like he was about to turn violent on the raven haired adult. Lin, Naru noticed, was just sitting in his usual chair sipping on some Chinese tea, and without his laptop. Although Naru could tell that the older man was deep in thought about something, he could not tell what the Chinese man was thinking. And finally, Naru's dark blue eyes rested on the other famous icon in the room, Hara Masako. Naru frowned a bit as he noticed the doll-like medium worrying her bottom lip, as if she knew something and wasn't sure whether or not to voice it. Now this got the twenty-year old PK user very interested.

"Hara-san, do you, perhaps, have something you want to say?"

The chatter in the room came to a halt as they looked towards the medium, who was now staring at Naru in surprise. As if realizing that she could not escape the questioning stares of her colleagues, Masako let out a sigh that told the team of her exhaustion.

"I was just thinking about Mai."

The silence seemed to be too loud for those in the room. Despite all their best efforts in trying to find their danger magnet of a friend, saying her name aloud meant a cold, awkward silence.

"Go on."

Masako looked at Naru, a serious look in her eyes.

"Not even two months before you arrived, Mai said she felt a disturbance within her dream realm, it seemed as if someone had let loose a great danger and she wasn't sure what to do. A week later I arrived home late after a show to find her all packed up and ready to head out."

"Where was she going?" Ayako spoke, curious.

Masako looked down at her hands. "She wouldn't tell me. What got me curious was that she didn't pack all of her stuff, just the necessary items needed when going on a case that may take some time."

Everyone allowed this new information to sink in.

"But that's not all. Earlier today I received a call, and not through the normal means of communication."

"What do you mean 'not through the normal means of communication'?" Madoka asked.

"As in, Mai astral projected to communicate with me. But something was wrong."

"Wrong as in?" Everyone stared at the Chinese man, for this was the first time he volunteered to speak since their arrival from England.

Masako looked him in the eyes. "She wasn't trying to astral project to me. She kept on talking to me as if she was dreaming. And she looked pretty worn out. Next thing I know she's gone and I felt as if something or someone was in the room with me, and it wasn't friendly."

Naru sat back in his seat. "It seems as if Mai has gotten herself into a bit of a predicament."

"Naru, I do not think it is a good idea to actively search for Mai at the moment."

Everyone gave the medium an incredulous stare, though it was Lin's harsh glare that seemed to have everyone a bit shocked.

"What do you mean by that Hara-san?" Naru questioned, ignoring the glare that Lin was weighing down on the medium.

"I have a feeling that we will actually put her in danger if we actively seek her out. The presence that I felt with me after speaking to Mai, I could tell it was searching for her and is unable to locate her. I think it wanted to get to her through our connection."

Silence fell over the room. And it stayed like that for a good half hour before the bell to the office rang, signaling that a potential client had walked through the doors.

"Hello? Is this Shibuya Psychic Research? I am in need of assistance."

A young woman made her way to where the others were, just as they stood up to greet her, Masako fell into John, unconscious and running a fever. While the others took care of her, Naru and Lin noticed the frightened look in the woman's eyes.

"I am sorry for coming without an appointment, but I am in desperate need of assistance." The woman wrung her hands in anxiousness. "You see, my family is being haunted and I fear that I am at fault."

"What makes you say that Miss?"

"Saionji Naomi. And I believe it is because of what happened last year." Naomi looked up at the group. "You see, my brother was murdered on my wedding day."

"And you feel as if you are the one at fault how?" Ayako raised an eyebrow.

"Because I was the one who killed him."