By late February, Oliver had accepted his situation as reality just as the general public had accepted the cause of that initial plastic ball's movement. It was tiresome, but it was survivable, having his face known. Fortunately, his wardrobe still managed to deter a large portion of the people who recognized him in the street, and most others would leave him alone when he didn't acknowledge his name being called. Unfortunately, those who tended to be insensitive to his mourning wear and insistent upon getting his attention were mostly energetic children and teens, who were both overexcited and impolite. Going viral was not for Oliver, at a time where psychic abilities were in the mainstream on top of everything, surrounding him with followers of all kinds instead of just the old quiet subculture nerds. He had thought Mai loud, found his brother irritating, but they were nothing in comparison to his new "fans."

Still living out of the hotel, he glanced over the newspaper they had delivered daily. At Madoka's suggestion, he was learning to read Japanese; it was one condition for his return here, along with Lin's continued companionship and his apartment search. He was learning slowly, but enough to make out that the headlining story was about a serial criminal. He had seen something on the morning news as well, about an unknown killer and his latest victim. It seemed overshadowed by all the pop culture news, however. All people cared about these days was the latest trend. It just so happened to be PK this week. Naru scoffed, folded the paper, and made his way to the suntan room for his daily exercise.

Mai was on winter break and spending most of her time in the office, but today Ayako had offered to take her and Masako out for lunch, so she was instead heading to the restaurant they were supposed to meet at. It was supposed to be rather nice, so she had put a little more thought than usual into her outfit. However, she thought, Ayako and Masako both probably had much fancier clothing than she did, so she felt a bit embarrassed. She was, in fact, wearing Ayako's hand-me-downs. It had been a while since she'd bought any clothes herself, but she was planning to do some shopping with the extra income she'd have accumulated over this break. While she appreciated Ayako's kindness, it was satisfying to achieve something by one's self too.

The restaurant was a small building Mai had never noticed before, despite walking down this street often. It had glass windows all across the front wall, but there were curtains inside, blocking the interior from view. There wasn't even a sign outside with the hours of operation, leaving the place a mystery aside from its name, "Aureo", a word Mai was unfamiliar with. While she was distracted trying to get a peek inside, there was a tap at her shoulder. She nearly jumped, startled, and turned her head.

"Ah, Masako, you scared me."

"Were you not expecting me, even though we were meeting up here?"

"Eh, no, I mean, nevermind. Where's Ayako?"

"I don't know. Matsuzaki is not all that reliable, I worry she might not show up."

"Ayako wouldn't leave us all alone like that. Besides, she insisted that she really likes this restaurant. I'm sure she'll at least be coming for the food."

"Possibly."

"Well, we can sit on a bench and wait for her."

There ended up being no need, as Ayako was just arriving with a loud "Hello ladies~!"

She was wearing a deep red turtleneck dress, and black ankle boots with gold embellishments. Her makeup seemed too perfect to have been done by even the steadiest hand. She was, as always, flashy, but stunning.

"Ready to eat?"

"We wondered if you were going to ever show up."

"Masako! We just got here too!"

"Hey hey hey, be nice to the gal who's paying for your meal. It's the least you can do."

"I could have paid for my own meal."

"Yeah, but I couldn't have, so let's just thank Ayako and go eat, okay?"

"...Fine."

"You really don't know how to accept others' kindness, do you, Masako?"

Ayako's remark was met with a "hmph!"

"Anyway, I hope you girls like Italian!"

"Oh, is that what this place is…"

Mai was still curious about the inside but with enough patience she'd get there, so she didn't say anymore. Ayako went forward and pushed the door open, leading the girls inside.

The fans were actually not the worst part of Oliver's new fame and popularity. They were only the gateway to the worst. It happened like this: One stepped into the office for a consultation, recognized the boss, and mentioned it to a friend. That friend mentioned it to another, who mentioned it to another, and eventually the information found itself online, public and searchable to anyone who might be looking for the great Dr. Davis.

It was the letters that now arrived at the office that had a real effect on him. After two years in this country of not having to touch a single envelope sent by a heartbroken family member of the missing, they'd found him again. He followed the same procedure as usual, and sent each one back unopened. Back home, it was routine, and he did it with no trouble, both before and after Japan. Here and now, however, it was different. He fumbled handling the letters, and let his hands linger on them too long. He found himself considering opening one, considering looking. He had to remind himself of all the reasons he had chosen to make it habit not to, had to remind himself that "their suffering is not your responsibility." Oliver sighed at his desk, a pile of mail sitting in the corner, letter-opener still curled up inside his fist. He grabbed the first envelope at the top and examined it. The address of the office was written on the front in numbers and sloppy Japanese, with Oliver Davis and Shibuya Psychic Research in plain English at the bottom. The return address in the corner was French. Assuming the individual French as well, and that the letter itself was in English, this person had gone through a lot of trouble to make sure he was able to receive and read it. To simply return it was…

Metal hit wood, and the letter-opener was back inside a drawer being closed. In seconds, the letter was back on top of the pile, and all of them were being slipped into a larger brown envelope for carrying, which was then pushed aside for later. It was okay. He'd handle this the same way as always.

Each of the girls had chosen a unique pasta dish off of the menu, and they were now chatting while waiting for their food to arrive.

"A date introduced me to this restaurant, actually. He turned out to not have a lot of money, but great taste in eateries."

"Is that really all you're concerned about," Mai asked. "Really?"

"Do you like spending time with men for free? I don't."

Ayako immediately stuffed a breadstick in her mouth and the younger girls with her both sighed in turn.

"It's just," she continued while chewing. "You girls are still in high school, you're still teenagers, you still believe in love. I'm old now, too old to chase that fantasy. If I'm going to go after anything, might as well be something solid and useful, like cash, or jewelry, maybe a new car."

"I thought you were still a young woman."

Ayako swallowed.

"That Monk is older than me and yet he makes fun of me for my age. Does that make sense to you? And I am still young. I'm not even 25 yet, but I've lived a long life, it feels. I've had plenty of experience, got plenty of knowledge."

Masako and Mai shared an amused look and a giggle before Ayako changed the subject.

"You know, John is a hilarious drunk."

"Oh?"

Both girls raised an eyebrow.

"You'd never expect that from him, would you? But he's a mess when intoxicated. You'd expect that from Takigawa, but he's much tamer."

"And how exactly did you discover this?" Masako inquired.

"I can't even imagine John drinking," added Mai.

"Hard, right? Anyway, we're drinking buddies, the three of us. Now, this happened just last week, you're going to love this story."

Ayako's tale kept the girls entertained until their food arrived, and then the food kept their talking to a minimum. When they were mostly finished, Ayako caught Mai staring into her bowl, unfocused.

"Hey, Mai, what's up?"

She didn't answer, so Masako tapped her arm.

"Mai, hey."

"Oh! Sorry. I was just thinking about, this whole thing around PK now. You remember Kuroda, right? She's really popular again now. We're in the same class this year. You know how Naru said she probably had latent psychokinesis abilities? Apparently everything happening recently inspired her to learn how to control them. It's weird. Even though we all met at my school first, it felt like I was in a different world with SPR than when I was at school or with friends. Now they've gotten mushed together. Keiko and Michiru never asked me about PK before, not that I have a lot to say about it. I only know the basics that I've picked up on cases, after all, but it's… weird. I mean, no one's talking about ghosts at least, so that's still unique to this part of my life, but it feels like it's all coming together."

"Yeah, I get that. Is that bad though?"

"Not bad, per se, just, odd."

"Hmm, yeah, that's fair. Do either of you girls feel like dessert?"

Mai and Masako looked at each other and shrugged.

"Fine, well, I do, so we're getting dessert. I'll treat you children to some sweets!"

As of late, Tokyo's special investigation team, the Zero Unit, had been stuck dealing almost entirely with pranks. It was tiring, humiliating even, for its members. Figuring out how some irresponsible teens managed to complete their latest scheme felt like lower work, for lower individuals to take care of. Seigi Hirota was sitting at his desk, eyes scanning over a file with contempt when his partner hopped up to sit beside it.

"Hey."

Saki Nakai slid over and tilted her head down to meet his eyes.

"What's the verdict?"

Hirota sighed.

"Kids are awful, but creative."

"Did you just figure that out? I've known all week."

"Whatever kid did this is especially awful and creative, though."

"Oh, really?"

Nakai was just starting to look over the file herself when the door opened and a familiar face walked through, a young prosecutor who usually handled major crimes. His presence in the office was usually to deliver the news when they were being handed over a case, so everyone in the room had their eyes locked on him, hopeful. There was some whispering in a room off to the side that no one could make out, and then both the man and their boss came out, looking a bit hesitant.

"Well, everyone, we've got a new job. Hirota and Nakai, I want you two to focus on it. It's from homicide."

The second named detective got a twinkle in her eye.

"Is it a mysterious locked room puzzle?"

"Nakai, this is something you need to hear directly from his mouth yourself. You too, Hirota."

Nakai frowned, and Hirota looked concerned.

"From, who?"

Their boss sighed and looked to the prosecutor who could only shrug.

"We're calling him 'Boy A.'"