a/n: Here's the sequel that everyone asked for. Hopefully it'll be what you guys wanted!

dedication: To everyone who requested a continuation.

disclaimer: I don't own Ghost Hunt.

summary: There's a chirpy, brown-haired girl that keeps showing up in his dreams.


switched

chapter two


Naru is beginning to think that his brother is hiding something from him. He barely eats before bolting from the table, he's taking more and more cases on his own, and he spends so much time astral plane walking that Naru doesn't think he's getting any normal sleep.

None of his attempts to corner his twin are working either – Gene brushes off his concern and exits conversations so abruptly that Naru's finally been reduced to astral walking to talk to his own brother.

Gene is studying a piece of paper so intently he doesn't even realize when Naru walks up to him. "Eugene Davies," Naru says flatly, and doesn't even smile when Gene jumps, startled.

"Naru," Gene tries to smile, "What are you doing here?" He subtly hides the paper behind his back, but Naru's known Gene all his life and subtlety is not his strong suit.

"What is going on?" Naru asks, ignoring his brother's question.

"What are you talking about?" Gene asks, playing innocent. Naru frowns and Gene pretends not to notice. "Oh, look, squirrel!" he shouts suddenly, his eyes going wide and despite himself, Naru turns. When he looks back, Gene is gone.

Seventeen years and that trick still works on him. Naru curses himself and wakes up.


After the astral plane incident, Gene is exponentially more difficult to corner. He mumbles excuses for missing dinner and disappears from the mansion. He's still astral walking, but Naru can't figure out where he is and his brother's phone records and credit card transactions reveal nothing.

Until they do.

Gene buys a ticket to Japan.


Naru's not an idiot. In fact, he's a certified genius. So it doesn't take him long to put the pieces together. All of Gene's strange behavior only started after he went to Japan.

Naru remembers the car accident and frowns. Perhaps his brother was more scarred from the event than Naru realized.

In any case, it's Naru's duty as the elder – by five minutes – to figure out what's going on and help his little brother – by five minutes – lest he get into any more trouble.

Naru conveniently ignores the part of his brain that reminds him that Gene only gets into trouble getting Naru out of it.

Naru also buys a ticket to Japan on the same flight.


After disembarking, Naru begins to think that this isn't such a brilliant idea. He's never been to Japan before and the people and the language are foreign to him. He can barely keep sight of his brother amongst the mass of black-haired people and struggles to reach him through the crowd.

Unfortunately, when he reaches the spot where he saw Gene last, he only finds an empty taxi stand.

His brother is gone and Naru is in a strange country without any help.

Naru debates calling his brother, but rejects that idea out of pride. Then he considers getting on the next flight back to England, but rejects that idea for plain, simple curiosity.

Instead, he buys a Japanese book and orders a taxi to a motel in the city.


He finishes the book in a day. His Japanese is heavily accented, but passable and Naru wastes no time in exploring around. He asks passerby if they've seen someone who looks exactly like him but Tokyo is a big city and Gene may not even still be here.

Naru compounds the problem by scowling at everyone he sees.

His astral walking hasn't yielded any fruitful results, and neither has any other of his ESP abilities. His brother is determined to hide from him, even if he doesn't know that Naru is in Japan.

With nothing else to do, and bored out of his mind, Naru decides to look for a case.


There's a school nearby that's planning of renovating one of their old buildings. The only problem is that every time someone goes near the building, they end up getting hurt.

Naru hangs around the campus for a day, and overhears a lot of news about the upcoming renovations. The wealth of data astounds him – the stories range from old Army hospitals to suicidal teachers and burned-down classrooms.

Naru takes the case.


She broke his camera. Naru is filthy stinking rich, of course, but it took him an hour and a half of mimicry and heavily accented Japanese to buy that camera and now she broke it.

The student smiles sheepishly but doesn't seem to be otherwise affected by his glare.

"I'm sorry," she says, bowing, "If you tell me how much it costs I'll repay it…" She looks doubtful, though, and so does Naru. Judging by the state of her clothes, she doesn't seem to have an excess of money lying around.

But she broke his camera.

Naru gets a brilliant idea – he is the smarter twin, after all. Naru's in desperate need of an assistant, and this girl could work as one for this case.

He broaches this with the girl – Taniyama Mai, she introduces – and she agrees.

Naru sends her to go buy another camera.


A few hours later, Naru is sorely regretting his offer. Taniyama-san is loud and annoying and christened him 'Naru' within five minutes of knowing him.

Gene is laughing somewhere, he knows that.

Naru, in turn, is irritated and frustrated and about two seconds from ripping his hair out. There's nothing to find in the building – it's empty of all cold spots and breezes and the closest thing to haunting it has is the graffiti on the sides. The legend seems to be false.

They're just about to leave when Taniyama-san trips and nearly falls down the stairs. Naru catches her at the last minute and Taniyama-san spends the rest of the day profusely apologizing for being a klutz.


There's a student making a lot of fuss over the renovation project. Naru stays the next day, just to make absolutely sure there's nothing haunting the building, and he runs into the girl. Mai introduces her as a classmate.

A few minutes later, the girl is lying at the bottom of the stairs. She was clearly pushed.


It's a mark of how well Mai is under pressure that she doesn't react to the fact that something invisible appeared not five feet from her and was solid enough to push a teenage girl down a flight of stairs. Instead, she runs to call the hospital.

The girl is fine, but shaken up.

Naru frowns.


It's a poltergeist. That's the only explanation. The girl and only the girl is adamant about the presence of a ghost and said 'ghost' only appears when the girl is nearby.

Naru quickly preforms a test and confirms his hypothesis.

Not that there was really any chance of him being wrong.


Naru is getting ready to say goodbye when Gene shows up. To tell the truth, Naru had half-forgotten his real reason for coming to Japan and seeing Gene standing there, his eyes wide and his mouth open, reminds Naru that he wasn't here to play house with schoolchildren.

But Gene isn't staring at him, he's staring at Mai. He looks like he's seen a…well, actually not a ghost. Gene's used to seeing ghosts.

"Taniyama Mai," he breathes out, and Naru blinks in shock. Is Mai the reason he's been acting so strange? It can't be – Gene's case wasn't anywhere near Tokyo and Mai hasn't left the city since she was born.

Mai looks at Naru quizzically and Naru fills her in. "My twin brother, Eugene Davies," Naru introduces, and Gene spares a half-second to look at him in surprise.

"It's so nice to meet you," Mai bows and Gene backs away a step. And another step, until he turns and runs away.

Naru is so shocked that he doesn't even bother covering it up.

"He doesn't usually act like that," Naru says, unsure of who he's trying to reassure.

Mai smiles, "More narcissistic and vain, then?"

"No," Naru scowls, "He's nothing like me." Mai giggles and Naru feels a strange urge to say something stupid, just to hear her laugh again. He quells the urge and clears his throat, "I should probably go see what's bothering him."

"You should," Mai says, and reaches up to kiss him on the cheek, "Goodbye, Naru." She turns and walks away.

Naru doesn't move for five minutes.


Naru spends the rest of the way to the motel alternatively cursing his brother and himself. At least he still has Mai's number and it's not like Japan is that far from England.

When he opens his door, he sees Gene sitting on the bed with a bright smile and his packed suitcase.

"What's wrong with you?" Naru says flatly, relieved to finally be able to speak English again.

"Nothing," Gene says cheerfully, and the statement is so Gene that Naru believes him. "I was working through some stuff, but I'm fine now, I promise." Gene holds out his pinky and Naru realizes his brother is serious.

Feeling a little childish, Naru also extends his pinky finger and locks it with his twin's.

"Also, Dad says he's opening a branch of SPR here in Japan and you're heading it!" Gene spills out in a rush, before leaving in a blur.

Naru gapes at the empty spot where his brother stood just seconds ago.

It seems like his stay in Japan has been extended.

Naru thinks of a chirpy brown-haired girl and does nothing to stop the smile spreading across his face.


Gene is almost sulking. It took him months to track Taniyama Mai and his brother finds her on his first trip to Japan without even trying?

But he sees the look on Naru's face, the twitch of his lips when she talked, the slight pink that covered his face when she smiles.

He understands what she meant, the time-traveler who Gene does not recognize in the teenage girl Naru has befriended.

They were meant to be together and now nothing is standing in their way.


fin


a/n: I hope it met all of your expectations!