So here it is. After reading your comments, you guys seemed to really want me to update as I completed the new chapters so I thought I'd listen to you and give you the chapters as I completed them so you can follow along with the new plot lines. There were a few people that also suggested that I leave the original up and post this in a new story so, here is it! The original will be marked as complete and will be titled The Cases of London Original for anyone that has interest in it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt.
Chapter Key:
Mai's dreams will be in italics.
'Thoughts'
"Normal Speaking"
Chapter One
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Mai stood in darkness, surrounded by glowing orbs of white light that twinkled similarly to stars. On instinct, she turned to look around and see if Gene would show himself today. Ever since Naru had left for England, it was rare for her to see the medium. Part of her wished that this was because he'd moved on but she already knew that wasn't the case. Since the very beginning she'd had a somewhat special relationship between Gene and Naru that allowed her to see and understand the both of them like nobody else had previously, and it was through this connection that she was sure she could feel if Gene moved on into the next world. In fact, Mai was mostly sure that it was Naru's involvement in her life that had triggered the release of her abilities.
Seeing no sign of Eugene, Mai turned towards the almost screen like area of blackness that was beginning to show a picture. It was seem that today she would just have to brave the dreams without him.
Taking a deep breath, she readied herself for the dream that was to come, momentarily relieved by the fact that this wouldn't be a first person dream. Those were the worst.
Mai observed as the scenery morphed into a mansion. The walls were old and run down, made of old cobblestone that was covered in numerous green vines where roses grew. There was a little moss that covered the building adding a little more aesthetic to the building and making it feel like majestic and magical. There was a lake in the background that contributed perfectly to the amazing picture, further helped by the setting sun that painted the background orange and pink.
If it weren't for the shout of a man, Mai wasn't sure if she would have been able to snap herself from her awed state of mind. "Pay attention Mai!" She scolded herself, turning her attention to the man and woman that she hadn't noticed in front of the mansion.
The woman was on the ground, hand clutching her face where it was obvious that the man above her had struck, leaving a swelling red mark.
"How dare you embarrass me in front of my family?! I told you never to speak unless spoken to" the man bellowed.
Tears fell from the woman's eyes. "I only told the truth!" She cried, "I refuse to allow my child to grow up under the conditions you give me."
Sneering, the man pulled her up from the ground by her hair. "What I gave you is what a worthless slut like you deserves."
Defiantly, the woman shook her head spitting towards him, "What you give me is less than what you would give to a dog. I am a human being and I don't care what you say, my child will not grow up being treated how you treat me." she hissed.
The man's face went red with anger as he threw her to the ground once more, face pulled into a mocking smile. "Your child will receive exactly the same treatment as she deserves. If you can't even manage to give me a male heir, then they deserve everything that I give them. And for that matter, so do you. What is the point in a woman other than to provide gratification for all of male kind and to give them a child to continue their line? The answer is nothing."
Mai gritted her teeth at the words that fell from the man's mouth. She knew that she couldn't do anything about the remarks but regardless she found the need to restrain herself. "It's already happened", she told herself until she felt that she could handle it. Turning back to the 'screen' she continued to watch the scene play out.
Despite the position she was is, the woman only laughed hysterically. "If anything, females are the superior beings." She declared.
It seemed as though she was going to say more but he wouldn't allow it. Aiming a punch directly towards her throat, the man stopped any words she may have wanted to say. Even after delivering a few more hits, his fists seemed to clench even more, showcasing the anger that was ,coursing through his body in that moment.
"The only reason you live now is because if you were to die, so would the child that grows inside your stomach. However, if you continue to defy me, I will make sure that the child you so dearly wish to give a good life finds itself in pain through-out the time it lives."
The man's words sent shivers down Mai spine as she covered her mouth in horror, her image reflecting the very essence that was the woman's face. Nodding the woman watched as her husband began to walk away only stopping briefly to call behind him. "Now hurry up. I don't have all day. Get yourself cleaned up for the guests later. I won't have you embarrassing me again."
As the scene changed, Mai felt time skip forward like a chilling wind. Voices surrounded her all at once, the sound of a new-born baby, the resounding of hits and slaps, screams of anguish and fury. One thing in particular stood out to Mai. The scream of that single word. "Mum!"
It wasn't hard to tell what had happened as Mai stood, watching people in black shed fake tears as a show towards the loss of the mother. The grave stone was simple and read two words, "Elizabeth Wadleigh."
Mai woke with a start, her body pulling itself from the dream unexpectedly and launching her spirit back into her own body once more. Despite the fact that the dream hadn't been even close to one of the worst she'd experienced over the years, Mai could still feel the anger that ran through her mind at the concept of a woman being incapable of speaking back to a man, let alone having such a thing be the cause of a woman's death right in front of a child.
Throwing the blankets aside, she rushed to her bathroom, emptying her stomach of its contents. When she finally finished heaving, she flushed the toilet and looked at herself in the mirror, shocked to see how much sweat covered her body. There were dark circles under her eyes, no doubt the result of dreaming as opposed to sleeping and she felt a little bit like someone had run over her body with a truck (something that she had in fact experienced before).
Shivering a little, Mai moved to close and lock the bathroom door, preparing to shower and warm her now freezing body.
In an attempt to snap herself out of the depressing thoughts that were beginning to form in her mind, Mai hummed lightly to herself, covering the screams that still rang through her mind somewhere, bouncing back and forwards in a way that was sure to cause a headache as some point.
Deciding that she was clean, Mai reluctantly left the warm cascading water to wrap a towel around herself while she moved to her room to choose something to wear.
Going for something simple, she threw on a light blue bardot top to go with a black midi-length skirt before checking the time. She wasn't surprised to see that she was already a little behind when she would normally wake up for an early morning start at work.
Grabbing her bag and filling it with her essentials, she locked up her apartment and started on her way over to her cafe, Little Delights.
Sometime are Naru had left, Mai had managed to start up a small cafe that sold various tea and sweets. Everyone had chipped in at Christmas six months ago and together they had managed to get the business up and running. Mai had never been happier than when they revealed their collective gift. There were so many tears that day.
Giggling a little at the memory, she tried not to let her mind wander to the other reason why she'd needed a new form of income. The payout she'd gotten from Naru as well as all the help that she'd received from the government and her friends combined had been enough but just before they opened the cafe, the government had deemed her old enough to worry about her own expenses which had left her a little high and dry.
Shaking away the memories, she tried to focus on something more positive as she unlocked the glass doors and let herself in. It was still early morning but she knew that it wouldn't be too long before the streets would be wide awake.
Putting on an apron, Mai set to work preparing the various muffins and other sweet treats that she always prepared fresh every morning.
It was around an hour later when she heard the door bell go off, signalling the entry of someone, despite it still being an hour before opening time.
"Jou-chan?" Bou-san called from just inside the room, already walking around like he owned the place.
"In the kitchen!" She called back, moving to set the timer so that her second batch of cookies wouldn't accidental burn before she moved to wash her hands so she could greet her father figure.
Bringing one of the Jars that she'd already filled with cookies to place of the counter, she nearly dropped it when she saw that standing with Bou-san wasn't Ayako or John, or any of the others that she'd thought might visiting with Bou-san that morning, but rather two tall stoic men that she hadn't spoken to in over a year.
"Guess who I met up with on the way over?" The monk joked slightly, a feeling of unease overcoming him. Part of him wanted to retract the statement and pretend that he had nothing to do with the presence of Naru and Lin in Mai's shop but he knew that wasn't possible.
After SPR had shut down, it took a while for Mai to bounce back. They'd all done their bit to help the young girl move on, finally remembering that she was just a teenager who didn't have a support system. But despite their best efforts, she never really cheered up like he hoped. So when he received a call from Lin the other day explaining that they required some assistance on a case in England, part of him wanted to decline without even consulting the others about it.
Normally he wouldn't have even considered something so rude, but he could still remember his depressed Jou-chan, months after their leave.
He'd managed to fight down the urge to decline and instead had offered that they come to visit to explain things in person and so that they could catch up. His reasons for this was mainly to see how it would affect Mai. Even if she was doing loads better than she had been, there was still a certain level of depression that surrounded her and he wanted to see if bringing the entire old SPR back together would be enough to offset that depression.
Seeing the look on Mai's face however, he was beginning to wonder if that had been a good call on his part.
"What are you doing here?" Mai asked, her voice even as she stared the two older men down, purposefully ignoring Bou-san. It was taking everything she had to think rationally and not throw them out of her store without a second thought.
'It figures. Just as I've finally managed to get over SPR splitting up and move on, they show up.' She groaned mentally. It wasn't that she hadn't missed them or that she didn't want to see them, but more like she didn't feel ready to see them. Not yet.
Oliver looked at Mai carefully, watching her face for any sign of the different emotions that used to play so openly over her face. It became clear very quickly however, that there was no way for him to read her emotions. She was hiding them remarkably well for someone who we had always thought wore her heart on her sleeve.
"I'm here to request assistance on a case that I'm working on in England, if you're interested." He proposed evenly.
The brunette's eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Do you not have enough workers in England to help on something like that? Isn't SPR a large company?" She inquired, a little confused. "And why wouldn't you just call? There was no need to come all the way to Japan just to fly back."
It took a moment before Naru responded. "This particular case is more high profile and I don't trust their incompetence when dealing with the issue, so my father told me that I could pick my own team." He explained. A small smirk entered his features. "You aren't nearly important enough for an entire flight to Japan. There was some more business to take care of here, so I decided that asking you all while here would be the most efficient way of obtaining a response."
For some reason, Lin seemed to find this reasoning amusing and Mai managed to catch a small smirk before it was hidden behind a mask of indifference once more. "Takigawa-san was kind enough to pick us up and suggested that here was the best place to find everyone." He added.
Glancing around the store, Mai was about to respond when the door from beside them opened, the bells chiming once more.
"Ayako!" Mai exclaimed, somewhat relieved for the distraction from her current predicament.
Walking over, she pulled the red-haired woman into a quick hug.
"Good morning Mai. How are you?" Ayako inquired, looking over at Naru and Lin pointedly.
Giggling a little at the intent in her friends gaze, she smiled. "I'm fine."
Nodding in approval, Ayako looked like she was about to make another comment but was cut off my the bell chiming as John and Masako also entered the store.
"Good morning everyone!" John called out cheerily from next to the medium.
Placing her kimono in front of her mouth, Masako repeated the same comment in a much quieter tone of voice, smiling a little despite her confusion at the unexpected presence of Naru and Lin.
Waving towards a large table towards the corner of the cafe, much further out the way then the other tables where the old team usually sat. "Go sit down-" She started before she the door was flung open a final time and she felt herself being tackled into a hug (or more accurately, being jumped in a some-what loving manner".
Steadying herself carefully, she turned her head to glare at the cause of her unbalance. "Damn it Yasu! It's too early in the morning for this." She cursed him angrily.
Tilting his head, Yasuhara couldn't help but smirk. "Does that mean that if it's not morning, then it's perfectly acceptable for me to do this?" He inquired seriously.
Trying to shake herself free from his grip, the brunette let out an irritated growl. "You know that it's not!"
Just when Ayako was about to step in and help Mai out, Yasu caught sight of Bou-san and launched himself towards the monk instead.
"Oh Takigawa! Worry not my love for I would never cheat on you, even for the loveliest of ladies!" He exclaimed before giving an appraising look towards both Lin and Naru with a smirk in place. "Or even for the handsomest men."
Giving the younger male a disgusted look, Bou-san finally managed to detach Yasu from his waist where he'd been clinging and start moving towards their usual table.
"I believe Jou-chan was about to tell us to take a seat over here instead of standing around." He pointed out, glancing over to make sure he wasn't over-stepping.
Receiving a relieved smile in response, he grinned.
"Thanks Bou-san. If you all go take a seat then i'll bring out some tea." Hearing a ding go off in the kitchen signalling the last of her baked goods were ready to cool, she turned around and headed for the kitchen quickly.
"Don't break my cafe!" She called back over her shoulder not looking back to see if that had gotten any kind of reaction.
Finally making it to her kitchen, Mai released a careful breath, monitoring herself carefully as she tried to do her breaking exercises while removing the cookies from the oven and placing them on a cooling wrack.
"You're fine. There's nothing to worry about. Don't stress." She mumbled to herself, focusing on breathing for the moment.
Unbeknownst to her, the pot plants that had begun to wilt and almost flinch away from her swirling emotions, slowly began to bloom on the window sill as she managed to force herself to calm down. There was no need to freak out. It's just Naru and Lin.
Taking a final deep breath, she carefully begun to prepare a couple tea pots with tea, filling one with earl grey and the other with green tea so that the others could choose their preference.
Placing them on a tray with a collection of cups, she carefully left the kitchen and made her way over to the table where the other's were quietly discussing Naru and Lin's reasons for being in the country.
Carefully sliding the tray onto the table, making sure that the earl grey blend was near Naru and Lin, Mai pulled up a seat and sat down to find out more about the situation.
Glancing down to check her watch, she frowned when she realised that there wasn't long before she had to open up the shop.
"Can someone catch me up really quick? I don't have long before I have to open up for the day and it'll be fairly busy at first." The brunette explained, looking over at Naru expectantly.
Yasu looked over and gave her an incredulous look. "Surely you can afford to open a little later than usual today?" He insisted. It wasn't like having Naru and Lin back in the country was something that happened frequently. In fact, this was the first time in two years.
Huffing, Mai crossed her arms with a disappointed look. "No way. I have a business to run. I can't help it if they decide to show up unexpected but I'm certainly not about to encourage the behaviour by opening late." She scolded.
Ayako nodded in agreement from across the table. "Spoken like a true business woman."
"We can catch you up when you have a moment later in the day then. When do you think you'll have a minute?" Naru interjected before another argument could start out. He was very quickly remembering the things that he disliked about this team before he left.
Thinking for a moment, Mai checked her watch again. "In two or three hours it'll be quiet and I have another worker coming in to prepare for the lunch time rush. If you're fine hanging around until then."
Naru looked over at Lin before nodding in acceptance. "That will be fine." He agreed.
Standing up from the table, she grinned. "Well then, make yourselves comfortable. If you need the internet for anything, just get Yasu to set you up." She informed before thinking for a moment. "Or better yet, John might be a safer option. There's more tea out back and you guys can grab a couple snacks if you want. As long as John's the one grabbing them."
She gave a pointed look to Yasu. "Don't go near my kitchen."
Yasu placed his hands up in a sign of surrender, smirking despite the snickers from around the table. "I don't know why you're only talking to me. Masako grabbed the same amount of cookies as I did!" He accused.
From across the table, Masako looked greatly offended. "I did no such thing." She scoffed, turning her head away.
Rolling her eyes, Mai walked over to place the sign out front and flick the one on the door to open.
"Time to get to work."