Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt or any of the characters. Unfortunately.
Warning: There are some spoilers, for those who have not seen the entire series or read them. My story takes place as a sort of continuation of Ghost Hunt after the series ends.
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For Mischief Manifold
"Are you there? Hello? I can't… Oh, there you are. Come closer, boy. Let me get a good look at you. You seem so familiar. Almost… no, it can't be you. You're too thin. What? Did you get taller? Is that why? I see. I guess I could try… But you're not there anymore, are you? You're pretty far from there now. I will come back later… No, later. What? Wait? No, I cannot. You will have to wait for me. I'm sorry, boy." He grasped for the fading energy, too weak to form an exact shape. The soft, tangible light floated out of his reach and beyond, scaling the tips of the nearby tree and whirling slowly into the night to become part of the stars. He stretched his fingertips as far as he could, but they didn't come close to their goal. Who had that been? An air of familiarity resonated from the soul, but he had not known who it once embodied. He wanted to know, desperately. Why was it so familiar?
"Naru. Naru, wake up. Don't make me ask all morning, I have better things to do." Lin's voice smashed into his consciousness and he sat up, a bit too quickly. Ignoring the small amount of nausea that swept over him, Naru angled his sharp eyes to the man hovering over him. Lin stood there, holding a plate of breakfast.
"You can call me by my name now, you know. In England it's okay to call me Oliver." Naru eyed the food, but his appetite had been swept away by that dream. That dream… Just who had that been, anyway? His eyes narrowed as he searched through his mental rolodex, trying to find a match for that voice that had sounded so strangely warm. He remembered the dream with surprising clarity. It was odd because usually his dreams didn't preserve that way. He would wake up, the feelings still fresh but the picture fading. He wasn't Mai, after all.
His eyes widened, his breath hanging in the air unspent, suspended for the moment. Was that it? Mai? The tone was just like hers. The same warmth was apparent in the spirit's voice, the same kindness of nature that was impossible to break with a cruel word or a gruesome situation. He had seen it flourish under the worst of circumstances and yet prevail. His heart paused, then churned and felt like ripping itself out of his chest. He gasped and jerked forward with the heavy weight of emotion he hadn't known himself capable of. No, it couldn't be. Was Mai… dead? Was she trying to reach him from the spirit world, delusional and afraid? Did she… Did she think he was Gene?
"Naru? Are you okay?" Lin's concerned voice broke through his thoughts, causing him to smooth out his emotional waves and sit up straight once again.
"I'm fine," he said. "Thank you for the food, but I'm not hungry." Lin tried to object, but Naru hushed him with a glance. Sighing, not even trying to hide his impatience with the other, Lin turned to leave the room. He stopped before he reached the door.
"You've become so much grumpier since we left Japan," Lin muttered, then walked out into the hallway. Naru looked at the space where his friend and employee had been only a moment ago, his expression stoic. Since Japan. Since Mai.
It couldn't have been Mai. The spirit's voice was clearly that of a man. Even the spirit world couldn't distort Mai that much. The soul-crushing pressure slowly ebbed from his body, overwhelming relief constrained to its smallest point. What felt like a soaked blanket, clinging and heavy, lifted from Naru's heart and he got out of bed and dressed, every movement a calculation. He entered the study, where Lin sat, typing away on the computer. "Lin, I want you to check on Mai," he said as casually as he could. "Make sure she's okay." Lin looked up from the computer, curious but wise enough in the ways of Naru to hold his tongue.
"All right," he replied, pushing himself away from the computer and standing. "I can call her and make sure she's doing fine." Lin was uncomfortable doing this kind of thing, but Naru had said… Well, it was best to get it over with. He liked Mai. She was a passionate little thing, and reminded him a lot of Gene, whom he still missed. Not that he ever told Naru, of course. Gene was an especially sore subject since Mai's love for Naru had turned out to be Mai's love for Gene. It was a rejection that had not surprised Naru, but Lin still felt like it had stung him in some deep, hidden way.
Naru dipped his chin in a nod and then left their small apartment, no doubt on his way to the office they rented in South Kensington.
Lin rubbed the back of his head with his long fingers, frowning at the phone. He liked Mai, but not enough to call her up for no reason. Still, Naru had asked. He reached out tentatively and picked up the phone, looking at it for a moment before dialing Bou-san's house.
After SPR had relocated to England, Mai had lost her part-time job, and thusly her ability to support herself. Since she was an orphan with no family of her own, Mai had tried to find another job but it was tough going, despite the glowing recommendation that Naru had casually left with her for other potential employers. Moved by what Lin suspected as a big-brotherly instinct, Bou-san had taken Mai in and was spoiling her as rotten as he could, which was not difficult for him to do given the money he made as a bass player. Mai had offered to contribute to bills and the like once she found another job, but Bou-san wouldn't hear of it, saying instead that she should take the opportunity to focus on school. He let her assist the band sometimes when they went on tour, and welcomed her help when he was asked to use his skills as a Monk, but otherwise Bou-san happily supported the girl, and, if Lin was correct, the role of 'adoptive brother' to Mai had made Bou-san's life far more pleasant and rewarding.
The phone rang three times before the Monk answered, his mouth stuffed with some manner of food. "Herrooo?" Lin grimaced slightly.
"Bou-san?" he said, his voice quick and forceful.
"Oh! Lin! What a surprise to hear from you. What can I help you with? I'm afraid England is a bit far for me to go in order to help with a case, but if you need advice…"
"Bou-san," Lin interrupted. He took a deep breath and sighed into the phone. "I just called to check on Mai."
"Oh." Bou-san finished chewing on whatever it was that he was eating and swallowed audibly. "Well in that case, she's home from school. Want to talk to her? Of course you do," Bou-san covered the receiver with his hand and shouted something, then the phone was transferred to the girl.
"Lin!" Mai's ecstatic voice squeaked through the phone line. "It's so good to hear from you, I didn't think I would for a while yet, but I'm glad that you called." The smile she had was evident in her tone, and Lin couldn't help the smallest of smirks himself.
"Naru just asked me to check up on you and make sure you were okay," Lin said, making an immediate (and truthful!) excuse for his call. Mai's joy-level dropped a little bit.
"Oh. … Naru asked you to?" The confusion on her end was practically palpable.
"Yes. It seems that you're doing fine. …You are doing fine, right?"
"Um. Yeah, I'm good," Mai responded, her voice smaller with each sentence. Lin coughed.
"Great. I will let Naru know."
Silence.
"Um, all right. Well, it was good talking to you."
"Yes. Have a nice day." Lin hung up quickly, then returned to his work.
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Mai hung up the phone, frowning. "Well that was odd." Bou-san picked up his chopsticks again and resumed digging through his rice bowl.
"What was?" he asked, stuffing a good amount of rice into his mouth.
"Lin was checking to make sure I was okay… Because Naru asked him to." Mai's frown deepened. Bou-san didn't miss a beat in the rhythm of his chewing.
"That seems weird, I guess. I thought they were calling me for my expertise!" Mai glanced at her friend, noting the rice grains all over the table and the ones sticking to his shirt.
"Expertise in what, messy eating habits?" she grumbled, grabbing a napkin. "Seriously, Bou-san, you need to clean up after yourself when you eat! I have wiped this table three times a day this past week!"
"Hey, I'm still eating that!" Bou-san exclaimed.
"These? Bou-san, these are all over the table, what do you mean you're still eating them? That's gross, knowing you, this table hasn't been cleaned at all today. You're eating dirt!"
"No, I'm not, I'm eating rice!"
"Dirty rice!"
"Dirty rice, clean rice, it all comes out the same way anyway."
"Bou-san, that's disgusting!"
The bickering ensued for a bit longer until Bou-san started eating rice grains off the table despite her warnings, and Mai decided to take refuge in her room.
It had been a sparse room when Mai had moved in with her small suitcase. Just a bed, a desk, and a dresser for her things. Then Bou-san discovered the joy of spoiling her. He took her out and forced her to purchase an entirely new wardrobe. "This is your non-orphan wardrobe!" he'd said proudly. "It shows that I care about taking care of you!" Mai couldn't deny him that, of course, and she had tentatively picked out a small, modest collection of clothing. He justified buying her a new computer with "You need it for school!" and various jewelry items with "You deserve nice things!" His desire for treating her was infectious, and soon even Ayako would bring her back things from her various trips. "Mai, you look so drab in that. Here, let me get you something prettier," Ayako would insist, dragging Mai to many a mall.
Needless to say, what had started out as a sparse room turned into a cluttered one, which Mai somehow still managed to keep clean. She lay down on her bed, looking out the window into the cherry blossom tree that stood outside. So Naru had asked Lin to call her? She wondered why. Naru hadn't spoken to her since he'd left to England. Not even an email. Sure, she knew that the way she'd spoken to him last was probably what had made him so distant, but she hadn't intended to drive him so far away that he wouldn't give her a call once in a while. They had worked together on a lot of cases, after all, and she was sure she'd meant more to him than an employee, at least. Even on a friend level. But apparently not.
Until today.
Mai rolled over on to her back, staring at the pale ceiling. Why hadn't Naru just called her himself? Was Lin trying to be nice? It certainly wasn't like him, so she didn't think so. Lin was even less social than Naru. Maybe she shouldn't be obsessing over it, but something had to have acted as a trigger for the phone call. What could it be? Naru didn't just orchestrate things like that for no reason. He always had a reason for everything. That was definitely something she had learned while working for him.
Well, there was no use thinking about it now. If Naru had a reason that was important, then he would share it with her eventually, in some way, shape, or form. In the mean time, she had homework to do.
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OOC: So what do you guys think? This is my first fan fiction; I just enjoyed this series so much, and it felt so anti-climactic at the end that I wanted to somehow continue it. Please let me know if you like it so far, so I can keep working on it. If you have any criticisms, those are also very welcome! Thank you.