Chapter 1: The Birth of 'Shibuya' Psychic Research

Set before the Anime.

It was late evening in the Surrey outskirts of London, England and in the grand, old Davis mansion a frustrated Luella, adopted mother of Gene and Noll, tapped the toe of her right shoe impatiently at the bottom of a grand, Victorian staircase.

"Noll!" Luella called furiously from the bottom of the staircase, "We're going to be late. Don't tell me you've forgot!" She knew her younger son hated mingling with people, but in the long run she knew he'd enjoy the night. They were bound for a party in Oxford with the professors and students he'd be studying with as one of, if not the youngest students at Trinity College. She was exceptionally proud of him.

"He just really doesn't want to go," Martin told his wife and Lin sighed, "You know what he's like in crowds."

"He never wants to go anywhere unless it's a quiet library or a deserted science lab," Madoka chuckled.

"Tough," the lady replied, "He's going to this party."

"Fine, fine, I'll go get him," her husband said holding up his hands. "Just don't blame me if he's in a bad mood all week," he smiled ruefully, then turned to make his way up the stairs.

He opened the door to his younger son's room and sighed deeply when his eyes come to rest on the sixteen year old lying on his stomach on his bed reading a book. "You didn't forget did you?" Martin rolled his eyes, "Come on, get up and put a suit on. This is an important event, you need to be there tonight even if you don't want to."

"Why?" the boy asked, turning a page without looking up.

"Because we all have to do things we don't want to...and because its important to your mother. She's very proud of you...sometimes I think you forget that."

"...My good suit's in the wash..." Oliver muttered in resignation.

"You have plenty - pick one or borrow one of Gene's," Martin said quickly, folding his arms as his child sighed dramatically.

"Fine," the young boy relented and closed his book. He pushed himself up from the bed and walked from the room, making for his brothers' room, feeling his fathers eyes following him.

With all the reluctant air of a stubborn teenager, Noll found a white, button up shirt from his brothers' wardrobe and glared at it, as though it was the shirts' fault he was having to go to this dinner party. His brother Gene would've loved to go, but Gene was in Japan, unfortunately for the young Oliver, it meant he was the one, rather than his more jovial brother, who would have to endure the evenings 'entertainment', for his mother's sake if nothing else.

Just after he was took the shirt from the hanger, Oliver felt as strange sensation of dread and within milliseconds, he knew what it was. He'd been training his powers for years and he was no stranger to psychometric visions but he did find it strange that he was having one now. Lin had taught him how to block them so that he could choose when and where to have these visions, and he certainly wasn't choosing to now.

Before he could stop it, Noll was looking through his brother' eyes on the other side of the world and his vision was tinted green. He felt Gene's peace of mind and calm breathing as he walked down a lonely road by himself. Gene had been in deep thought about his recent meeting with a young medium and in the back of his mind he registered the sound of a car nearing.

Suddenly, the car impacted on his brother and Gene was tossed aside like a rag doll and Noll felt himself, in place of his brother, hit the ground. He heard the car screech to a stop and then he heard the car door open quickly, followed by the click, click, click of someone running in heeled shoes on the tarmac.

"Oh god..." a woman's voice whispered in shock. He tried to open his eyes to see the woman's face but he couldn't. He could feel Gene try to beg for help and he heard the muffled sounds escape his mouth fall on deaf ears.

The woman then turned and ran away from him, and Gene's failing protests grew more intense. Oliver tried desperately to make the vision stop, but no matter how hard he tried it wouldn't go away. He was stuck here.

Then he heard the sounds of the car moving again, it got louder and louder, as though it was coming closer, but he didn't know why. He couldn't think clearly. His whole body ached so much.

...And then he knew why.

Oliver felt the moment that Gene's life left his body and he was thrown into a black abyss.

Not long after, the darkness receded, his vision was still tinted green - as though he needed reminding why that was, and he could see from afar, a silhouetted woman hastily wrapping a body in something shining and silver in a rusted out, abandoned garage.

Things started moving more quickly now and the scenery flickered as the woman's burden was tossed from a nondescript boat into the cold water of a lake with no distinguishing features. The mist and fog prevented Noll from seeing her face or anything even remotely useful , and because Gene never saw the licence plate of the car, neither had he.

Then, like a popped balloon, the lake faded away and Oliver found himself in his brothers' bedroom again, standing before the old, wooden wardrobe, like nothing had happened.

His whole body ached and he shivered from a lingering effect of the cold Japanese night in which Gene had been walking. The shirt he was holding fell from his hands and he didn't even notice. He was breathing heavily and he was numb to the thumping beat of his heart and the sound of his blood pumping a mile a minute.

For the first time in his life he found himself praying he was wrong. He knew his visions had never before been wrong, but this one had to be. Gene couldn't be dead. It was impossible.

"Noll?" Martin called out, "What's taking so long?" the man asked, knocking on the door.

"...No..." Oliver said to himself, dropping to his knees in defeat.

"What?" his father's voice asked, but Noll was oblivious, even as the door opened he noticed nothing.

"...No..." Noll repeated uselessly, shaking his head.

"Oliver?!" Martin cried, running the short distance to kneel beside the boy, "What's wrong?" he asked, putting his hands on his sons' shoulders, "What happened?"

"...I..." the boy whimpered.

"Martin, Noll!" he heard his wife call up again and he moved quickly towards the door.

"Never mind the party," he shouted back, "Get up here!"

"What's wrong?" Luella asked as she, Madoka and Lin ran into the room.

"He's gone..." Oliver said simply.

"What? Who's gone?" Luella furrowed her brow and sat beside her son, putting her arms round him.

"...He's gone..." the boy repeated.

"...'He'..." Lin repeated and saw the discarded shirt on the floor. His eyes widened in realisation and he quietly moved to pick it up and hide it behind his back. Madoka met his gaze as he held the fabric behind his back with an understanding gaze and she closed the wardrobe without Luella or Martin noticing either action.

"Erm...why don't we let Lin talk to Noll," Madoka said to her two married friends.

"I'm not leaving," Luella shook her head.

"Maybe it's for the best, he is the expert in his powers," her friend replied.

"But..."

"Trust me," Lin told them, "Just give us a minute...please..."

Martin swallowed deeply in worry, and stood, putting an arm around his wife, "Alright, Lin," he said, breathing heavily.

"Thank you," Lin told him, and Madoka followed them, leaving Lin alone with Oliver.

"Noll, tell me what happened," Lin demanded putting the shirt down, "What did you see?"

"...I saw...I saw Gene..."

"What about Gene?" Lin asked.

"He's dead...I saw...it was green...a woman...she killed him...ran him over...threw his body in a lake...it was green..." the boy stammered. "He's dead, Lin, he's gone."

Lin gently lifted the boy up from the floor and moving to help him sit on the bed. "No!" Oliver cried, "Let me out!" squirming out if Lin's gentle hold on his shoulders and running out of the room.

"Noll!" the man yelled, following after his young charge. He expected to have to chase Noll around the house, but it didn't take him two seconds to see the boy. He was stood motionless, looking down from the top of the staircase, his hands clutching the dark wooden railing.

Lin moved much slower, not wanting to startle the child, but he blinked in fear as he felt a wave of psychic energy pulsate from the small teenage body. "Oliver..." he whispered quickly, "...You need to calm down..." he said, watching as the smaller objects started to quake.

"...No..." Noll said again just as a vase closet to him smashed itself into the wall, shattering into a thousand tiny pieces.

"Noll, stop it," Lin yelled, as Martin, Madoka and a tearful Luella walked out of one of the rooms and stared across at the young teenager.

"He's gone...I couldn't stop it..." Oliver said to himself and a small, but heavy oak side table went flying as painting fell, clattering to the floor.

"Luella! Stay back!" Martin shouted, but his wife didn't listen. Instead she ran straight through the throng of hurtling objects, straight towards her son. She out a gentle hand on his shoulder and turned him round.

Luella held her son close, stroking his dark hair as the boy held back tears, but she didn't have to, she couldn't. One of her sons was dead. She knew everything there was to know about Oliver's powers and as much as she wanted him to be wrong, she knew he wasn't. His visions never lied. Especially not about Gene.

"Now what?" Martin said to Lin.

"I don't know," his friend answered sadly.

Fortunately, the young Oliver's use of his psychic abilities had done little damage to him and he silently cried himself to sleep with his mother adamant that he not move from her arms until he slept while Lin told them what Noll had seen. Their reaction was almost as bad as Oliver's.

When Oliver finally awoke he found himself in his bedroom once again, staring up at the ceiling he could feel his still aching limbs under his soft quilt. For a while he simply lay there, unable to move and process what he knew to be true. He liked to think of himself as a scientist. A scientist should never deny the truth. A science should look at facts and be logical...and that's what he would do. He would use logic to find the woman that murdered his brother.

Noll finally pushed the quilt aside and made his way slowly, on shaky, uneasy legs to the door. He leaned against the old wood and willed his limbs steady before opening it and searching for his parents.

He found his mother, father, Lin and Madoka all slumped in the living room in arm chairs around the fireplace, with cups of untouched tea at their feet.

"Noll?!" his mother blinked, "H...how are you feeling?" she asked walking over to him and leaning him to sit on the sofa.

"I have to go to Japan" he told them after a minute of silence.

"What about your studies? What about Cambridge?" Luella asked slowly.

"It can wait," Oliver answered resolutely.

"They might not," Madoka added.

"If they're so willing to accept a sixteen year old, then they'll be willing to wait a while, especially for something so important," the boy answered, and they had to admit he had a point, as always.

"Noll..." his mother sighed.

"I have to go...I'll go with or without you, I don't care, I'm going to find him...and the person who murdered him."

"Maybe this is a better job for the Japanese police," Madoka said warily.

"And what would we tell them? That I felt my brother die in a vision? That I know he's lying in a lake because I saw someone throw him in there?!"

"Oliver," Luella sighed, letting her tears fall again.

"No, they'd never believe me, you know that," Noll said, "I don't even know what lake I'm looking for. I don't even know what this woman looks like. didn't even see her face, or the colour of the car, or the licence plate or anything useful!"

"You could've been wrong," Martin wished aloud.

"You know I'm not!" Noll muttered.

"Regardless of what you think, we'll call the authorities first," Luella sniffed, "Then we'll see what they find," she added in a tone of finality, and even her son didn't dare say anything further.

Eight days passed with regular contact with the Japanese police, which slowly dwindled until they were informed that, due to lack of evidence, the case was being all but abandoned.

"I'm going!" Noll said rashly.

"Noll..." Luella began, "You can't..."

"I told you they wouldn't find anything. They've given up, I haven't. I'll find him...let me try...please..."

"I'm not having you going to another country alone...Lin will go with you," Martin said confidently.

"I don't need a nanny," Oliver scowled.

"He won't be," his father continued, "He'll be your assistant."

"Assistant? Assistant to what? I'm only going there to find Gene, then I'm coming straight home. I don't want to stay there any longer than I have to."

"You can't just go to another country and start throwing your weight around, Noll. You need a cover story; you know how much you hate the press."

Oliver sighed, knowing his father was right, but not wanting to admit it. He'd been so caught up in his anger and frustration that he hadn't actually thought this through as much as he should've.

He knew that Gene had been in, or around Tokyo, because his brother had called them the day before and told them he was in the capital, but the area surrounding it were vast and dense. It'd be worse than looking for a needle in a haystack, and there was no telling how far into the country Gene had gone after making the phone call.

"Alright, just give me a few hours," Noll said, and went to his study.

A few hours later he was lugging a heavy suitcase down the stairs and wheeling it into the foyer across the old, polished parquet flooring.

"Noll, I thought you meant you wanted a few hours to think, not to pack," Martin frowned as he and the others walked into the room.

"I've sorted everything," the boy told his father.

"Where will you stay?" Madoka asked.

"I found an office in Shibuya," he answered, "And two apartments nearby. Even with the scepticism there'll be no shortage of clients in there."

"He's right, people pay small fortunes for prime office locations," Lin told his employer, Martin, trying to reassure him.

"You know the money isn't the issue," the man said, "Neither are the cases. Noll, I don't want you to get carried away in this. Gene wouldn't have wanted that."

"Gene doesn't want anything now, he's gone," Noll muttered angrily, regretting it instantly. He turned to Lin and spoke again, "I booked a flight, it's in two hours, if you're coming you need to pack," he finished and walked back towards the stairs.

"Where are you going now?" Martin asked.

"To get my other suitcase."

"How much is he taking?" Madoka raised an eyebrow.

"...Maybe we shouldn't have said he could go," Luella sighed sadly.

"He'd have gone by himself anyway, at least this way Lin can keep an eye on him for us...make sure he doesn't so anything stupid, won't you?" Martin said.

"I will," Lin said adamantly.

Not long after, Martin drove the five of them to the airport. During the whole journey little was said to alleviate the tense atmosphere and Luella could feel her surviving son drifting further and further away from her, but she could do nothing. Part of her wanted Gene's body brought back home, but not at the cost of loosing her other son.

At the airport, she gave her son one last hug as they stood amidst the busy station. "Take care of yourself, Noll, and make sure you call us when you get there," she said.

"Alright," he replied with a small smile.

"Promise?"

"Mmm," he nodded and she reluctantly let him go. A second later, the boarding call for their flight rang out on the speakers and Lin picked up his hold all and Oliver's briefcase.

"You're sure about this?" Lin asked him quietly as they walked down the terminal.

"Of course," Oliver answered in Japanese.

"Alright, then," the man answered in the same language.