If you haven't read the first episode of this story, or have suffered from severe memory loss and can no longer remember, tough. :D
And I know my dearies that I left you all hanging because it wasn't exactly what you would call finished, but that was because I was trying to split up the plot into two even sections. Considering I don't know my entire plot yet, I think I failed.
Meh.
I know i said it wouldn't take long, but I've been really busy. My school (all girls) teamed up with another school (all boys) to perform a big concert. There were many acts, one of which being me and some of my friends performing Led Zeplin's Stairway to Heaven. (I was singer, Kikijio was bass, thecolourofmagic was piano, and Leo was guitar, and we had a drummer but she doesn't have a fanfic account.) I know you don't really care, but I wanted to mention it for two reasons.
1. KIKIJIO, I COULD PUBLICLY HUMILIATE YOU FOR FORGETTING THAT LINE AFTER ALL I TOLD YOU BEFORE.
2. I have met.
A real life Naru.
Ghost Hunting and GhostBusters
Life went on pretty much as normal. In the next few weeks when Naru and Mai went back to school, school life continued to be hectic and boring and fun at the same time.
Masako did not acknowledge Naru or Mai's existence. If she had to talk to them, she would get someone else to instead, and glare at Mai from behind her back. Mai had deducted from this behaviour that Masako wasn't upset, but just plain angry.
And what do angry people like to do when they're angry?
Take revenge.
But that comes later.
Two weeks after their year disco, at the end of which, five people were found in a cupboard, Mr Cullen had collapsed from disco fever (haha) and when Yuki had discovered that she had been eating the face of a boy named Chouji, not Naru, went through 15 lip balms and 37 lip glosses in order to purify her lips, Mai's class seemed back to the way it always was.
The bell had just rung for registration and Mai was not yet in school. Naru watched the clock, slightly smirking, until the hand moved to the 1 minute past sign, making Mai officially late. Then the door burst open and a heaving Mai flung her bag on her desk and sank into her chair.
"And what time do you call this?" asked a stern Naru. Mai looked at him in surprise, but noticed the sarcasm in his eyes and grinned.
"It's not my fault that my legs aren't as long as some peoples. I'm a slow walker." Naru shook his head, smiling.
"That's got nothing to do with it," he replied, but the entrance of a dishevelled Mr Cullen brought an end to further conversation.
As he took the register, Mai leaned her head on her hands, and watched Naru. She couldn't remember a time when she had been so happy. Although she still wasn't fully convinced, apparently Naru actually liked her, even though there must be something wrong with his brain. But Mai wasn't going to try and tell him otherwise. Not when she got to see Good Mood Naru everyday now, the Naru that was still as sarcastic, but who was also the Naru that smiled more, that made her pulse do strange sports and that caused her cheeks to blush and make her speech incoherent for human ears when he kissed her, or when their eyes met and he stared at her, refusing to look away, as he was doing now...
Meanwhile, at the front of the classroom, Mr Cullen was trying to concentrate.
Something very strange had happened on his way to school.
He had been sitting on the bus, staring out of the window, when he had suddenly heard a thump. He looked down at the floor, to find a woman lying there. She looked faintly familiar, and he wondered if he had seen her once before.
Actually, this woman, (the same one as before) had gotten the same bus as him every day now for three weeks.
He had lifted his gaze back to the window again, when the woman suddenly appeared to gain consciousness, and proceeded to grab his hand with both of hers. Robert had looked at her in surprise, only to feel even more so when the lady said:
"MARRY ME!"
And with this, Robert removed his hand swiftly, and walked to the bus driver, to inform him that he should keep an eye on that particular woman, who seemed to have gone a bit mad.
And he had left the bus.
Mr Cullen finished the register, and nodded at the class to dismiss them. They walked out, and went to their first lesson.
They were on their way to physics, where they were now learning about forces and motion, (arrows always befuddled Mai) when in the middle of the crown of people, a leg shot out suddenly in front of Mai. Mai, happily chatting to random people tripped over something, and would have fallen to the floor, if Naru hadn't been there to catch her quickly, and then insult her afterwards for her clumsiness. Mai looked around, but decided she had tripped over her own feet again.
---
Mr Cullen was in the middle of teaching a group of overly enthusiastic eleven year olds. He groaned in his head. Why were these young people always so happy? And noisy? And sucker up ish? Mr Cullen didn't have it in his heart to fail these students just because thy irritated him, so he was doomed to listen to their incessant nattering about what ending they put on their Latin word.
And then it struck him.
It struck him like a bolt of lightning.
Somebody. Had proposed to him today.
And he had walked away.
What was wrong with him?
---
Back in physics, Mai leaned her head on her hand and tried to concentrate. Taking a pen from her pencil case, she started to flick it round her thumb absent mindedly as she frowned.
Her life was very good at the moment. But it was too good.
Something was wrong.
And it had taken two and a half weeks for Mai to realise it.
Naru had come to this school, to this area, because he was looking for his twin brother Gene. Two and a half weeks ago, they had gone to the house that, if Gene was living her, would have been his house.
But there had been nobody there, and so Naru did not find his brother.
So if Naru came here to find Gene, and he wasn't here, didn't that mean...
Naru would move to the next area that Lin found Gene to be in.
Meaning that Naru would leave her.
At the thought of it, Mai felt a physical pain in her chest and the pencil slipped from her finger and clattered onto the floor. It had just happened to be a silent moment.
Mr Dakestu the Physics teacher swooped down on Mai with hawk like eyes, picking up the pencil and placing it back on the desk.
"Not concentrating are we hm?" He queried.
From the other side of the classroom, a small high pitched snicker could be heard, but Mai hadn't heard either that or her teacher talking to her. She didn't notice everyone staring at her. Her eyes were focused on the window outside, but her mind was somewhere else. Eventually the teacher gave up and continued with his lesson. Mai, without realising, picked up the pen from her desk and continued spinning it round her finger.
After the lesson, Mai left the classroom silently and walked down the corridor. She had forgotten to wait for anybody, and so made a noise of surprise when she found Naru walking next to her.
"May I ask what prophecies you were foreseeing in physics?" he asked dryly.
He was met with silence.
A minute later, Mai realised that Naru had been speaking to her, and she shook her head slightly to try and get rid of the horrible thoughts that were plaguing her mind. She turned to Naru.
"Sorry, what?"
But as she looked at him, she felt another pain in her heart, as she saw his beautiful face, and understood that someone like her was never meant to be with someone like Naru. It just didn't fit.
Naru saw the anguish in her eyes, although she hid it very quickly, and frowned.
"I just wanted to know why you phased out in physics."
"Oh that? That was nothing," and Mai laughed quickly, and changed the subject. Naru let it go, for the moment.
When they had climbed up to the next classroom for history, silence had been their main companion, as Naru wasn't one to start up conversation, and Mai for the first time not attempting to.
As they entered the classroom for history, Mai opened her bag to find that it was missing all the books she needed for that lesson. She frowned. She was sure she had packed her books this morning at school, because she had left her bag for a few minutes, and then had come back to it having spoken to Mr Cullen about nothing in particular. Naru, who was sitting next to her, watched her searching through her bag for the second time. Eventually she gave up.
"You know, I could have sworn that I packed my books today. Oh well, maybe I just forgot."
"Isn't this the third time?" asked Naru.
He was right.
"Now that you mention it...there was my maths stuff that disappeared, and then my pencils, and my biology textbook, and then I tripped over nothing earlier..."
"But there's nothing strange about that," added Naru.
"Maybe..." began Mai excitedly, her previous angst temporarily forgotten. "Maybe it's a GHOST! Or a SPIRIT! Wow! I'm being chased by spirits!"
"...Things like that don't exist," answered Naru, but Mai wasn't listening.
Mai had already started singing.
"If there's something strange in your neighbourhood
Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS!
If there's something weird and it don't look good
Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS!
I ain't afraid of no ghosts
I ain't afraid of no ghosts
If you're seeing things running through your head
Who can ya call?
GHOSTBUSTERS!
An invisible man sleeping in your bed
Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS!
I ain't afraid of no ghosts
I ain't afraid of no ghosts
Who ya gonna call?
GHOSTBUSTERS!
If ya all alone pick up the phoneand call
GHOSTBUSTERS!
I ain't afraid of no ghosts
I hear it likes the ghost
I ain't afraid of no ghost
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah-"
Mai was cut off by Mr Cullen walking in and hitting Mai on the side of the head with a textbook.
"Ow," muttered Mai, clutching her head. "What are you doing here?"
Mr Cullen was just about to answer when a voice spoke.
"Mr Cullen, I'm leaving the lesson early to go to a dentist appointment."
Mr Cullen, being Mr Cullen, ignored the voice, and answered Mai's question. Mr Cullen had a small soft spot for Mai, for he pitied her after all she had been through.
"Your teacher fell off a building yesterday, so she's in hospital. You'll just be doing study work for this lesson."
At that moment, somewhere, a thought stuck something.
Meanwhile, the class had settled down to a disrupted and chaotic lesson where no one did anything of importance.
Mai had quickly decided to act as if nothing was wrong with her. It had occurred to her, that if Naru was to leave, then shouldn't she make the most of what time she had left?
Naru, wholly unaware of what was going on, took out a book from his bag and started reading. Mai peered at the cover.
"What does that say?" She asked. The writing was a kind she didn't recognise. Naru stared at her.
"It's English."
"No! It can't be! We learn English, so obviously I can tell when something is English writing...ooh."
"Shibuya," came a voice from behind them. Subject turned around, head slightly tilted. "May I see that book?" In the attempt to look like she was actually doing something in case Mr Cullen set her his own work, Mai's attention was now fixed on 'a very important task', and so did not really notice the conversation that passed between Naru and Mr Cullen. Making paper dolls. (It's a marvellous pastime when you're bored in a lesson :D)
"My, this book brings back memories of my childhood."
"You know it sir?"
"Of course I do!"
"You can understand English sir?"
"My boy, I am English! I lived in England for 20 years! Of course I can understand English!" Naru's eyebrows raised.
"What part of England?"
"Barnet. It's just outside London. Why, do you know England?"
"Yes. I was born there."
Mai, who had just finished cutting out the paper dolls and was just about to draw faces on them when she heard what Naru had just said dropped her pen to stare at him.
"You're from England?"
"Yes. I lived there until I was 8"
"How wonderful!" cried Mr Cullen, and then launched into an unwanted conversation about England.
When Mr Cullen had finally left to sort out a fight that had just erupted at the other end of the classroom, Mai rounded on Naru.
"You never said you lived in England!"
"Did I have to?" asked Naru wearily.
"Yes! But I thought that you were adopted-"
"Yes. I was adopted from England when I was 8."
"Ooh."
It's true what they say.
You learn something new every day.
---
At lunchtime, Mai showed Ayako her paper dolls like a small child proud of their achievements. Naru rolled his eyes at her, while Takigawa laughed.
"So this is the girl you like Naru," he said. It was well known among most people now that Naru and Mai were in a relationship, but Mai had yet to tell anyone of Naru's adoption and his brother.
"So Takigawa" began John, looking for new conversation in case Mai was suddenly bombarded with insults, "How's your band coming along?"
"Not that well," sighed Takigawa. "Our singer's absolutely crap. But we use all of his equipment, so we can't knock him off unless we buy our own, but we don't have enough money."
"Typical losers" tutted Ayako.
There was no response, and most of the table sighed in relief at the thought that Takigawa wasn't going to retaliate.
Five minutes later however...
"Hey Ayako!" Takigawa suddenly cried. "You sly thing! You never told me! Congratulations!" Ayako looked up at him suspiciously.
"Never told you what?"
"You're pregnant! Wow, gee, I'm so unobservant. Gosh, it must be nearly due right?"
Every head in the canteen turned to look at Ayako's stomach. Ayako flushed with anger.
"You bas-"
"-ket of fun? Bundle of joy?" Ayako looked like a dormant volcano on the verge of erupting. But Takigawa hadn't finished.
"But you know, you probably blackmailed or threatened the father, and I don't think that's very fair."
"Why, do you wish it was you?" asked Naru bluntly. But Takigawa was not to be set down.
"Not unless she had a face transplant."
And that was the final straw.
Everybody waited for the whack.
But it never came.
To everyone's surprise, Ayako laughed.
"We'll see..." she said mysteriously, and let their table, leaving Takigawa considerably more uncomfortable than before.
"You shouldn't have gone so far," Mai sighed. Takigawa laughed nervously.
"Yeah..."
At that very moment, Lin in the library suddenly sat up in his chair and leaned closer to the computer screen, his eyes widening. Madoka, who was sorting out paperwork nearby heard his small noise o surprise and walked to see what the problem was.
"What is it Lin?"
"I think...I've found something."
At the end of the day, Mai said goodbye to her friends and walked home alone. Usually she went home, got changed and then went to Naru's. She was still working there, because she needed the money, but life naturally wasn't as awkward as it used to be, and for that Mai was very thankful. As she reached the front door she noticed it was slightly ajar. Mai stared at it. Surely she hadn't forgotten to shut the front door? If Mai prided herself on anything, it would be her reliability when it came to safety measures, unless the case was an unplanned earthquake, in which case she could do nothing about.
Opening the front door, she peered inside; slightly scared in case someone was hiding there.
Her flat was in a mess.
Everything was on the floor, books were torn and curtains were ripped, and as Mai got to the kitchen she saw some plates were smashed. Mai looked around, horrified.
Now what should she do?
Only one thought came to her.
Naru.
Mai Tried clearing up some of the mess in the kitchen, but as she picked up a broken plate it slipped off her fingers, making them bleed. Mai winced, but then shook her head with a small smile.
Mai had just taken the glass from her mother when it slipped through her fingers and smashed onto the floor.
"Maaaaaiiiii" Moaned her mother as Mai stared innocently at the mess she had just made. As she realised what she had done, she began to cry, and then hastily to try and clean it up. Her mother laughed, but picked her up and took her out of the kitchen.
"Let me clear it up. Never pick up broken glass Mai, or you could cut yourself."
"I'm sorry!" Mai wailed.
"You should be," came a voice from behind. Mai turned to see her father walk in the front door. At the smiles on the faces of his wife and daughter, he smiled.
"My, what a happy family we are,"
Mai was not surprised to find some tears on her cheeks as she looked back at her devastated flat. It was at times like these when she wondered about how lonely she was.
"You're not lonely," a voice in her head told her. "What about Naru?"
"But how long will Naru be here?"
--
Lin was in a rather major predicament.
He had found Gene.
In England.
Was he to tell Naru, and watch him leave all the friendships (and more) that he had made? Lin had been searching with Naru, and had never seen him as happy as he was here.
It was all thanks to Mai.
But if he told Naru, Lin knew he would leave Japan without a second look back, however much it would hurt him. Once he had his mind set on things, giving up was not an option.
And it wouldn't just hurt Naru.
But Gene was also important to him. They hadn't spoken for years.
Lin had discussed the problem with Madoka, and she had told him not to tell Naru, yet. Not when he had everything else here. Madoka had also never seen Naru so different when he was with Mai. He was finally beginning to open up more, and not keep all his troubles inside himself. And if he left, he would just go back to the way he was before, if he didn't have Mai there with him.
There was a quiet but rapid knocking on the door.
Lin looked up from the computer in the study which he was staring at without knowing. Naru's head popped in the door.
"Do you know who it could be? Mai's not due till an hour or so." Lin shrugged, and Naru frowned and went to open the door.
He was surprised to find Mai standing there, still wearing her uniform. Naru's quick eyes saw the plaster on her hand, that wasn't there before.
"What is it?"
"Well, you could call it 'the spirits' again."
"Have you lost some more books?"
"...Not exactly."
Wehay, the sequel has begun!
COMPETITION IS STILL RUNNING.
I NEED THE NAME OF A BAND, AND A PERSON
SEND IN YOUR SUGGESTIONS VIA REVIEWS OR PM'S
I didn't clarify before if they had to be japenese or englsih names, because they can be either. It would just be the case of adding an extra sentence, although i might prefer english and names.
WINNER MAY ALSO BE THE NAME OF A REAL BAND, IF THEY DONT MIND IT. :D
xxx