So here we go. This is the fourth chapter. This has been a work in progress for so long but real life has been more than a bit of a pain. I actually spent the better part of last year and the entire beginning of this year preparing to move out and now it's finally over and I have a space of my own to work on writing so you can expect these more frequently. I have however decided to start writing ahead for you guys because of my unpredictability so far. From now on I'm going to put out chapters every Sunday, my time and there will likely be several of them written ahead of time in order to keep this schedule going. Here's to hoping that this works out better for things.
Review Responses:
Joys: I'm glad! I never know if the interactions will come off as forceful between Mai and Noll in particular because in a way it's supposed to be slightly awkward but i'm also trying to get the feeling of how they always act with each other across so i'm happy that you're enjoying them so far.
Guest: Aww thankyou so much! It means a lot to me that you're enjoying my work. Don't worry, I have no plans to stop writing any time soon. Updates may be slow at times when real life has me distracted but I'm determined to see this story through until the end regardless of how long that may take me.
Jenjenthejetplane: Thank-you so much, i'm glad that you've enjoyed my characterisation of Naru so far. I find him a rather difficult character to write a lot of the time so I'm happy he's been shining through so far.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt
Chapter Key:
"Japanese Speaking"
"English Speaking"
'Thinking'
Chapter Four
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When the car stopped Mai couldn't help but stare in amazement at everything, body frozen in her seat. The building in front of her was old looking but in the nicest of ways. There was something about it that reminded her of the palaces she used to see in fairy tales with the way the vines crawled over a small section of the brickwork and the gardens she could see surrounding the secluded area they were in.
"Stop gawking and get out already." Noll teased, opening his own door and getting out, heading to the boot to grab Mai's things while she shook herself from her stupor.
"It's not my fault that I've never seen something like this before." She defended herself hotly as she finally opened the door and walked over to grab her stuff from Naru.
Looking over at the group of mismatched people a little bit away, Mai pulled her suitcase over to Bou-san to rant about how everything looked.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" He asked, voice somewhat dazed as he stared in front of him.
Nodding slightly, Mai couldn't help but twirl around as she admired her surroundings. There was a peaceful feeling in the air, almost like the plant life that was in this area was happy and alive. It was different to anything that she'd ever felt before and she wasn't sure how to describe it as she looked over at the monk.
For some reason, it seemed like none of them could tell the difference in the air despite how palpable it was to her though so it was easy decision to just leave the concept alone and keep it to herself for now. If she got a chance with Naru alone then maybe she would ask him if he knows anything about it.
The brunette felt her body flush with anger when she thought of the possibility of him telling her it was just an "animal instinct" as well.
As if sensing Mai's situation, Yasu glanced over and rolled his eyes as the familiar sight of the brunette working herself up over nothing because she'd gotten too caught up in her thoughts.
It didn't even take him a moment to decide what the easiest solution would be. Making his way over to his favourite monk, he grinned as made to throw his arms around the other man's body. "My love! Are you seeing the same thing that I am?" He exclaimed loudly with as much drama as he could muster. "Don't you worry, one day our love will be recognised and we too can live in a mansion just like this one!"
The monk flailed against him almost instantly in an attempt to escape out of the younger man's surprisingly strong grip.
"Would you let go of me you weirdo?!" He shouted, "I don't love you!"
The pout formed on his face before Yasu even had a chance to think of it as he let the other go and quickly moved over to Mai instead.
"Mai-chan! Tell Bou-san that our love knows no bounds! His words wound be so much and I'm not sure if I can live through the heartbreak if he doesn't take back his cruel words." He pretended to cry on her shoulder, resting his full weight on her for added dramatics.
On cue, Mai instantly began to pet his head in fake consolidation. "I'm sorry Yasu. Allow me to comfort you from this pain. His words mean naught for I swear it's merely his fear of society talking. He loves you truly, do not worry." She proclaimed easily, more than accustomed to their "act" by now.
She would have continued had it not been for the (expected) thwack from Ayako's bag coming down on Yasu's head harshly and then lightly on her own.
"That's quite enough out of you two. I don't appreciate the acting, much less encourage it, so stop acting ridiculous so that we can move this along. Not to be rude but it's been a rather long flight and I'd much rather get inside as soon as possible." Ayako insisted, looking over at Madoka with a pointed look.
Shaken from her own amusement, (as well as Lin and Noll's, no matter how subtle they thought they were being), Madoka nodded in agreement.
"Of course. Sorry, come right on in." She insisted, starting up the stairs and opening the door up for them to file on through.
Upon entering the house, Mai wasn't sure what she liked more about this place. The outside or the inside.
Looking around, the place practically sparkled, high ceilings made of beautiful dark wood and soft sweeping lines. Immediately she also noticed the regal looking staircase in front of them and couldn't help feeling a little bit like a princess out of a fairytale.
Between the staircases that ran on either side, their was a couple steps before there was a set of french doors as well as a door under either side of the staircases.
Unable to help herself, Mai wondered over to the stairs and touched the cool wood that made up the decorated banisters in awe. This was by far the nicest place that she'd ever been and there was a small part of her that screamed for her leave. She was an orphan, this was surely the last place she'd expected to ever end up.
Shaking those thoughts away from her head, head moving like they were a physical issue and not one of the mind, she glanced at the others to see them waiting on her once more.
Flushing slightly, she smiled sheepishly causing Naru to roll his eyes at her before he started off to the left of the house.
Rolling her eyes at Noll's behaviour, Madoka motioned for them to follow him. "I'll go let the professor know that we've arrived." She told them, turning to walk in the opposite direction.
Sighing, the group began following Naru, stopping in front of another large wooden door while Naru opened it before moving in to sit down to the right of the head of the large table the occupied most of the room. "This room in our primary meeting room. My father will join us shortly to discuss the details of the case I brought you in for." He informed them, pulling out his black notebook.
Shaking his head, Lin took a seat across from Naru and left the others to figure out where they were going to sit.
Glancing around the room Mai quickly decided that she didn't want to be stuck next to most of the people in the room and took a seat next to Naru in the hopes that his glare at anyone too close to him would stop them from making complete idiots out of them in front of her to be professor. 'Not that Naru knows that yet...'
Seeing his chance, Bou-san immediately took the seat next to her, grinning at the eye-roll he got from Ayako as she sat down next to him.
Pouting in a show of mock disappointment, Yasu made his way over to Lin's side of the table and took the seat directly across from Mai, leaving room for Madoka when she got back.
John immediately followed suit with Masako trailing after him.
They had just managed to finish seating themselves when Madoka walked back in with a wide grin on her face, the older man trailing directly behind her.
Taking the seat that was obviously left for her next Yasu, they waited as Martin seated himself at the head of the table.
Despite it not being the first time they'd met, Mai took a moment to observe him. Her instincts said that he was definitely a nice person even though he may seem grumpy from first glance. Moving her eyes over to Naru and then back to Professor Davis, she couldn't help but enjoy the resemblance. Not in the physical attributes, they were nothing alike in that manner, but rather in the way that they held themselves.
Looking back to Martin before anyone caught her thoughts wandering, she waited patiently for him to tell them why exactly they were here.
"Are all of you fluent in English?" Martin asked, clearing his throat slightly as he looked around the room.
Mai smiled, nodding at him. "Everyone here speaks English on a decent enough level Professor Davis." She assured him easily. For a moment she was glad that Bou-san had opted to learn English as well while she was so that none of them were left out.
For some reason the man seemed a little shocked that she'd spoken to him before nodding and giving her the smallest of smiles in thanks.
"That will definitely make things a lot easier." Martin noted before he took a moment organise the papers that Mai only just noticed in front of him.
"Recently, a friend of mine and Luella's moved out of central London into a country mansion in order to have some peace and quiet. Almost immediately after moving in, the youngest, Megan, reported hearing the screams and crying of another teenage girl at night even though she's the only one in the house. Then another spirit appeared. Gwendolyn's daughter started seeing a young man around the place. It was only a matter of time before he got violent. She's woken up to him trying to choke her to death twice and refuses to be inside the house anymore. They were all packing up to get out of the house after the spirit got violent but just as they were leaving this morning, the male spirit appeared and Megan is now missing."
Passing the documents around so that everyone could get a look at them, Mai realised with a start that they were pictures of the house that Martin was talking about and of the injuries that had occurred so far.
Staring at the picture of the house, she couldn't help but imagine the house a little bit newer as flashes of her earlier dream began to come back to her. Flicking to the next pictures, she swallowed at the sight of familiar injuries. Moving through them quickly, she passed them along to Bou-san without another word, trying to fight back the images that were once more clouding her mind.
Watching her out the corner of his eye, Naru's eyebrows furrowed slightly at expression as she stopped on the image of the house before flicking through the pictures and passing it along to the others. Aware of how hard he was staring, Noll turned back to his father but kept the note to ask her if she knew anything before the meeting finished up.
When he noticed his father occupied, he leant slightly over to Mai's side. "Did you notice something?" He asked, voice low in an attempt not to get his father's attention.
He wasn't so lucky however as his father glance over and gave him an inquisitive look. "Is something the matter Miss Taniyama?" He enquired noting her slightly pale expression.
Shaking some of the images from her head, Mai gave Martin the best smile she could muster. "I'm not sure. I'll need to show Naru-I mean Oliver and see if he agrees but I think... I think I may know a couple things?" She informed, slightly flustered at being called out.
There was an eyebrow raise before Martin turned back to Lin for the moment and left her to fish a small royal blue notebook out of her handbag and flick open the pages until she came across her most recent entry from the other morning.
Wordlessly, she passed it along to Naru and waited to see what his reaction would be.
Looking down at the book in his hands, Noll was surprised to see that it was a detailed account of what appeared to be a dream laid out as well as a sketch below it that he could easily find resemblance to the other image he'd seen with. Scanning over the account, he was frustrated at the lack of kanji that he could understand but what he could make of it seemed like it matched up perfectly with what they knew of the house so far.
Nodding in approval, he handed it back over to Mai.
"It seems plausible." He agreed easily.
Rolling her eyes slightly at his aloof acceptance, she turned back to the professor.
"On the day that Lin and N-Oliver came back to Japan I had one of my dreams. It was third person and I witnessed the abusive relationship between a man and his wife, and how it caused her death in front of their daughter. He was-" Mai stopped to turn to Naru, listing off the word for misogynistic in order to get a translation from him before nodding and repeating the word. "He was misogynistic and believed that women were lesser. Some of it was hard to make out but i'm sure that the mother dies from being choked to death. Her name was Elizabeth Wadleigh." She informed, trying not to leave any information out.
Normally she didn't need to verbalise her thoughts but when she wrote in her dream journal she was much too tired to focus on anything other than writing in Japanese so she had a feeling that she was going to have to get used to this. It wasn't like many people were going to be able to read it while she was studying here. If they ever needed too.
Lin and Naru immediately made some notes in their current case information while Madoka noted the name without complaint to look into later.
Letting out a hum of understanding, Martin focused his entire attention on the brunette.
"How do you know that this is definitely related to the case?" He inquired, always the sceptic. It hadn't escaped his attention that his best workers had already taken her at her word but he needed to make sure that they weren't slipping. People's lives were on the line after all.
Flushing, Mai held out her notebook with the drawing. "This is the house from in my dream. I remember almost exactly as the same in that photo. I just need Madoka to check the name to see if their was a history of it belonging to that family to be one hundred percent sure but my instincts are telling me that this is the case." She insisted, no trace of doubt in her tone.
Nodding in acceptance of her answer, Martin glanced down at the notebook and was shocked to find that at the bottom where the sketch of the mansion was, laid an extremely close match to the mansion he'd just looked at images of.
Still, despite the eerie similarities, he still felt a little sceptical towards this girl. Oliver was rather closed off when it came to discussing his previous employees and co-workers so it was hard to understand where he was coming from a lot of the time.
Lin and Madoka had both spoken of them of course but even Lin seemed uncharacteristically tight lipped on the subject and Madoka never seemed to say anything of importance about them, only inconsequential tid-bits on their lives. It was all very frustrating.
Once more giving the girl his full attention as he handed back the notebook, he couldn't help the slightly incredulous tone his voice took on despite his best attempts.
"You're basing this mostly off of instinct then? Does this "instinct" tell you anything else of importance? If possible, could you also explain it further?" He inquired.
It was an odd feeling for Mai, being legitimately questioned about her abilities from a sceptic within the parapsychology field but she couldn't help but feel like it was going to become something frequent.
Before she could attempt to explain her abilities, Naru seemed to take pity on her.
"Mai has exhibited latent psychic abilities in the past on many cases that we worked together. Her instincts are usually extremely reliable." He informed his father.
He tried to resolutely ignore the looks of surprise from the other's sitting at the table -and more specifically- the knowing look he was receiving from his mentor. What things were going through that girls head to cause her to look like that, Noll was sure he never wanted to learn.
Listening to the information, Martin nodded in acceptance. "And more on the dreams? What can you tell me?"
Once again, before Mai could answer for herself she found Lin speaking on her behalf to explain things. "Mai frequently had post-cognitive dreams on or about cases that often helped us to gain an understanding of what was happening in a home. She has also exhibited a capability in astral projection in the past as well. It can all be found in the written reports for the Japan branch of SPR." He explained with ease, keeping the explanation brief in an attempt to quell the interest Martin seemed to be showing.
Almost like reading his mind, Martin gave the brunette a thoughtful look. "I don't suppose that you find yourself in a position to run a few tests?" He inquired, the scientist in him running through a variety of different ways that they could test this girl's abilities.
A brief look of surprise came over Mai's face before she seemed to consider it for a moment.
Frowning slightly at her reaction, Naru turned away to face his father instead, silently fuming at the thought that he would ask such a thing.
"I would ask that you don't make such suggestions father." He stated, carefully crafting his words and finding himself relieved from the nods he received from Lin who appeared to be of the same opinion.
Blinking in surprise, Martin couldn't help but flick his eyes back and forwards between them before focussing on Mai. "But surely you wish to test at least a couple things and find out more about her abilities? There are not nearly enough with similar abilities in parapsychology that we have the chance to gain an understanding from." He couldn't help but insist, confusion clear in his tone.
Before either of them could open their mouths to speak further on her behalf however, Mai finally managed to shake herself from the thoughts that were currently running through her mind.
Although she had thought to test her abilities at one point, something about the way that both Lin and Naru had immediately spoken up for her made her wary. Between that and the more recent changes she could feel in her spiritual energy, she wasn't nearly as inclined as she might have been only six months ago.
"While I appreciate the sentiment, if you could refrain from answering on my behalf Oliver then that would be much appreciated." The brunette muttered, rolling her eyes at the glare she got in response while she turned her attention back to Martin.
"While I'm certainly grateful for the offer, I'm afraid that I have to decline. There are far too many things to consider before throwing myself into the kind of testing I'm sure that you're suggesting and this is hardly the time to be thinking on such things. You'll just have to satisfy your curiosity with the case notes that Oliver has from my time with SPR and after this case is over, I may be able to find some of our newer case notes for you as well instead?" She offered, voice trailing a little uncertainly after her little speech.
Sighing in disappointment, Martin nodded to her suggestions. "I suppose that is very true. We can speak more on the subject later then." He acquiesced. "However if you change your mind at all..."
Mai smiled warmly at him. "I'll be sure to let you know first." She agreed without prompting before amending herself at the glare Naru gave her. "Second."
Martin chuckled a little but before he could say otherwise there was a knock on the door before it swung open without prompting to reveal Luella.
"I don't suppose you lot have finally finished up, have you? It's gotten late and you still need to rest up before tomorrow's no doubt eventful day." She insisted without waiting for a single reply.
Seemingly unaware that they both made for the same motion, Naru and Martin both found themselves pinching the bridge of their noses at the same time in what was probably a fruitless endeavour to avoid an oncoming headache, much to the amusement of Mai as she found herself once more subject to just how similar the two of them appeared to be.
"Hello mother." Naru greeted without waiting to be prompted.
As though she hadn't noticed the annoyance in his tone, Luella eagerly turned to her son, grinning. "Oh Noll, we haven't even had a chance to catch up since we got back since your father stole you away so quickly. Are you well? Did you eat enough while in Japan? I hope you weren't working too hard." She rattled off without waiting for a single response before turning to Lin. "You were keeping an eye on him weren't you?"
There was faint amusement on Lin's face as he nodded. "I assure you that Noll did not work too hard and that he ate plenty while he was away." He promised, inwardly thankful that for once it had not been a lie.
From beside her, Naru merely rolled his eyes at her fussing and pushed his chair back, getting ready to leave the room now that nothing immediate held his attention any more.
Amused at his son's reaction, Martin gave his wife an indulgent look. "I don't suppose you came looking for us for a specific reason, dear?"
As if only just remembering her reasoning, the blonde haired woman perked up even more. "Oh of course. I was coming to inform you all that dinner will be in a little under an hour so now is a good chance to go settle into some rooms and freshen up. I imagine it's been a rather tiring day so far."
Smiling at her in relief, Ayako couldn't help be thankful for the option. She at least, felt like there was a thin layer of dirt covering every part of her body and she wouldn't be against a bath of any kind.
"That sounds wonderful, thank you." She expressed.
As if her response had finally prompted them from their stupor triggered by the sudden presence of the lively woman, a resounding sentiment came from the other sitting in the room causing Luella to laugh lightly.
"You're very welcome. Come along and I can show you to the rooms you can stay the night in." She proposed, stepping back out into the hallway without waiting for a response.
It didn't take long for them all to follow suit, pushing themselves away from the table, eager to get somewhere to tidy up before they filled their stomachs.
When she was satisfied that all of them were following her, Luella made her way down the halls and back to the staircases that they'd seen earlier before leading them up and to the left with all the ease and grace of a well-off woman despite her more childlike demeanour.
Coming to a stop only a few doors down, she waved towards the row. "These guest rooms have all be prepared for you all to use. You're welcome to choose any of them." She informed them cheerfully. "I'll send one of the maids to let you know when dinner is ready and she can show you the way to the dinning room."
No sooner than everyone had once more relayed their thanks did they all start filing into the rooms.
Just as Mai made to go to a room as well she found her arm caught between a familiar grip.
Turning to look at Naru, she couldn't help but tilt her head in confusion. "Naru?"
"I have a different room for you to stay in." He informed, slipping back into Japanese purely out of habit.
As if on cue, Mai's eyebrows drew together in a clear show of confusion.
"What do you mean?"
Without explaining further, Naru merely began to drag her back the way they had come from ignoring the look from his mother.
"Naru?!"