This is the very last part, Mai gets one last 'torture session' from her boss. It's not funny at all, just a little something to conclude what happened in the previous chapters.

Now, let me go back to writing Twofold (read it, it's not too bad, I hope!).

Morbid Curiosity

Black Tea.

The moment she stepped into the SPR office again she heard an all too familiar voice calling again.

Instead of going straight to the kitchenette like Mai usually did, she went to sit at her desk, dropped her bag next to it and banged her head. There was no hesitation or any doubts in her mind, just utter shock and disgust. Mai had returned straight from the store in Shinjuku where they'd exorcised a spirit or two, and bought herself some trendy clothing from the coupon she had received from the owner. Of course she went into the ladies' changing rooms to try out the outfits, and fell into a sleep of sorts, which turned out to be a post-cognitive dream of Naru dressing up himself in front of the mirror, which resulted into Gene's cross-dressing a week later on.

This proved to be an even more traumatic and maddening experience than when she'd seen Gene. The walk back to the office was suffice to say, difficult, hence being late. There was no question in her mind that Naru would never engage into cross-dressing for his own pleasure. It was simply impossible.

"Mai," Her boss interrupted. He stood in front of the door that led to his office.

She refused to look up to him on his command, her head still on the table. He didn't say a word.

"You... you're the lowest!" She finally spat out and as she glared at him, breaking the uncomfortable silence. It earned one suspicious glint and a raised eyebrow from her other two co-workers who happened to be in the main office. "I saw what you did in that dressing room. Why would you do such a thing to him!"

He briefly closed his eyes and sighed, as if he'd been expecting this. "Would you take this issue to my office. Right now."

"No," Mai firmly said.

"Then," he paused, millions of thoughts processing through his mind before he'd say the following sentence. "Wouldn't you like to know what he did to me?"

Although she had a quite astonished look on her face, Mai remained sitting in her chair, holding onto what she'd stated a few seconds ago. Then he closed the door, after blankly looking at her. It was an odd way of getting his way with the current situation, but it worked; Mai couldn't help but wondering about what exactly Gene did to his other half.

She groaned.

To tell the truth, Naru didn't want it to drag on for too long. He had hoped Mai would never find out, but her post-cognitive powers seemed to have revealed this to her. The young man slightly wondered if it was his brother's doing, but he quickly shrugged it off. The two of them had finally decided they were quits, so Naru couldn't waste his precious time anymore and went back to whatever he was doing at his desk. Just a small dispute of two brothers over a single girl.

Ten minutes passed. He instinctively grabbed for his cup of tea, only to realize it was empty, and that Mai never went to make him another cup. Speaking of her, she had a awful lot of self control. Did he underestimate her? No, he couldn't have.

"Mai, tea!"

He heard another almost inaudible groan coming from the outside, and then some footsteps. She was just way too curious. Naru smirked to himself. This was too easy. She returned with a tray and a cup of tea.

"I want to know," traces of anger were in her voice. She placed the cup on the desk.

Just as planned.

"Gene's tea is of very questionable quality," Naru stated, and her jaw hit the rock bottom. He took the cup and sipped. It was excellent. "No, let me rephrase that; Gene produced me something that barely resembles the tea I want."

"Uh okay, but what does that have to do with-"

"That idiot had promised me to never give me it again," he cut her off.

"That just means you're being way too anal about your tea! I don't understand you and your obsession for good tea," she exclaimed. "And poor Gene!"

There she goes again, probably thinking it wasn't right to do such a thing to a dead person! Poor Gene this, poor Gene that! It made him wonder very often why she always managed to care for the others so much, except for himself. Somehow she always turned against him. Did he really treat her that poorly? He'd paid her salary faithfully and on top of that, getting her out of various troubles during the cases. What kind of expectations did she have of him?

"It's like when you constantly crunched me out during that poltergeist case! Only because of my supposedly horrible tea," she continued, while making fists.

"That's because, like Gene, you never try and drink it yourself," 'So sentimental', he thought, and sipped from his tea again. "Then you whined to him about it, and then he possessed you. Correct?"

An angered face was replaced for a confused one in an instant.

"Ha?"

"If your memory doesn't fail you as usual, you should have remembered that 'blank' right after that." Naru continued.

"Of course I do, that's what I've been bugging you a-" Then Mai abruptly stopped in the middle in her sentence. It couldn't be, she thought, did Naru imply that Gene possessed her during that time? "So he, I-, bu-but I didn't remember anything for hours-!!"

"Yes, he did possess you for over twelve hours I estimate."

Her jaw dropped and her mind started spinning. "Ah."

"Just think about what a normal young man would do in a girl's body." As far a dead medium can be called normal, but that's beside the point. 'Don't worry Mai, I personally took care of him too, as you know!' Naru smirked on the inside. 'Poor Gene?' He almost wanted to say out loud. 'Served him right!'

Mai turned several shades of white at that statement, until she got as pale as he was. Naru sipped his tea.

"No way.."

"Unfortunately I don't know about whatever he had been doing before he entered the office and made me 'tea'," he said the last word as if it was something despicable.

"So, so he did that to punish you for the things you said to me?" Mai wondered out loud. No matter how much that made sense, she still didn't believe him. What a petty argument!

Naru looked to the side for the moment and she caught it.

"Naru," she impatiently said. It wasn't like him to be hesitant. He had to be hiding something from her!

"Yes," he answered. To some extent.

"That still doesn't explain that unrecognizable taste in my mouth after that memory blank," the girl insisted, and caught him trembling the cup for a moment. "And you just said Gene never drinks his own tea, so..."

"Well, what do you think?" Naru interrupted, before sighing deeply. Then he got up from his chair as he took the last sip of the black tea.

When Mai didn't reply, as she was too busy about thinking of what possibly happened next ('but that's incest!', 'no, that's kind of hot!' or 'wait, my first kiss!', ...), he took the advantage.

"Let me make this up to you then, because I did mean you had a good taste back then," Naru said, remembering when they'd first met. He chuckled a little, in a dangerous manner, as he walked up to her. "I'm very glad your third sense does function, then let me give you a demonstration," The fear-inducing smirk on his face made her take some cautious steps backwards until she ended up with her back against the door with him just inches in front of her.

"So use it properly," he said after he retrieved the key of his private office from his pocket, and locked the door.

Omake:

Yasuhara and Lin counted exactly twenty-three minutes had passed on their stopwatches since a scowling Mai entered Naru's office and her return to the kitchenette. She quickly poured her two co-workers their cups of tea, only to go back straight to her boss's office again with her tray, all before they could ask any questions about the color her face was making.