I haven't read all of the novels, only what I've found that's been translated into English. Believe me, if I had, I would be writing something that continued after that.
Still, there are spoilers that lead until up to the end of vol. 12 of the manga. There are a lot of ideas floating around in my head for this story, but for now, your feedback would be greatly appriciated! ;D
If I owned this series, the novels would all be in English by now!
;
The world was spinning, but all Mai Taniyama could do at the present time was stare at the ceiling. Her thoughts were on one thing, one person. Though, she wondered, could he even be called one person?
Oliver Davis was a man who hid behind many masks, after all.
Who was he, really? The answer couldn't come to her, perhaps because it was an answer no one really knew.
No, that wasn't true. He had. But she hadn't really known him, either.
She hadn't even known his name. When he was the one who had been appearing in her dreams all along.
And then she realized, he slipped into her thoughts just as, if not more, easily than his stoic counterpart.
"If I called out your name, would you finally come back to me?" The words simply echoed, and she was left to contemplate who, in fact, those words were aimed towards.
Another mystery that could, quite possibly, never come to light.
Still staring at the worn, but somehow fascinating ceiling, she was beyond caring how desperate she sounded. For all she cared, the ceiling could cave in on her. It would serve her right.
For not realizing...
For not stopping him...
For not saying the truth.
The lovely, former assistant of one Kazuya Shibuya was of course talking about the result of the events that had taken place a month previously.
A month ago, her former boss and his similarly enigmatic assistant had gone back to England after retrieving said bosses twin's body from the bottom of a lake. A lake that of course, had to have been located in a completely remote, outdated location.
Mai felt extremely selfish for thinking it, but she was almost grateful that it had been in such an off beaten area. If it wasn't, would she have ever have gotten a glimpse at the man who now constantly invaded her thoughts? Would she ever have learned the identity of the counterpart, who had quite literally haunted her dreams?
In truth, Mai was beginning to understand that the real reason why she thought about it so much was because she was lonely. Shibuya Psychic Research center remained open, but even with the rest of her family-Madoka being a new addition, surrounding her, she felt an inherent gap.
She had no one there to scold her,
no one there to chase the demons in her dreams.
Her eyes eventually became too tired to keep their gaze, so instead of the ceiling, she squeezed them shut, forcing away images of the object of her hurting heart.
Tomorrow was a work day, and it was already almost midnight.
'I wonder who's been making his tea...' Her mind formed a half-coherent image of a rabbit holding a watch and a broken tea cup before drifting into a fitful sleep.
Her morning was quiet, apart from the persistent screech of the tea kettle as it announced, rather obnoxiously, that the water inside was ready. She hastily grabbed the kettle, pouring the steaming water over a bag of cheap black tea. Settling down on the small sofa in the equally small living room, Mai waited for the beverage to cool, recalling how much the screeching noise had frightened her as a child.
Her first encounter with the horrid noise was surprisingly one of the clearest memories she had left of her mother.
Growing up,she remembered her mother had actually never been very fond of tea.
"It used to be my job to prepare the tea for guests. Too many memories of being burned. Just the smell of it seems bitter, now." Her mother had explained, a distant look on her face as she filled a large kettle with water and set in on the stove to heat up. "However, hospitality comes before personal preference, and I don't want your fathers grandparents to think I'm raising you incorrectly." She laughed fondly and ruffled little Mai's mop of hair. "I've got to go get dressed, sweetie. Go play, but try not to get dirty, okay? And don't touch the stove."
Unfortunately, her mother had forgotten to mention that the sound of a tea kettle was rather startling, especially to a small child who had never heard anything remotely like it before. Even after her mother had explained what it was, Mai had still been too afraid to enter the kitchen unaccompanied for the next month or so.
Now that she thought about it, her mother had often appeared to be a very flighty person, to say the least. Mai wondered if people would think them alike, were she still alive...
"Kami, Mai..All you do is think about dead people." She scolded herself halfheartedly, taking a large sip of the beverage that had appeared to have cooled off during her inner reflection. It hadn't.
"Owww, Owww, Owwwwwww!" During times like this, she was glad she lived by herself. Like Naru needed more ammunition to insult her with.
Naru.
Mai sighed, and glanced up at the clock on the stove top reflexively.
She was going to be late. 'What a surprise..'She thought dryly.
Ten minutes later, Mai was already headed out the door before she realized an important and discouraging fact-She was still in her pajamas.
Call it woman's, psychic, or animal intuition, this was bound to be a difficult day.
EndPrologue.