So far, the most popular Prompt is the third one with Mai saving Gene from dying, but in doing so has undone everything that had happened (good or bad) for two years. I still don't know if I'll continue it, but I'll at least give you a second part.
This is what might have happened if they (Mai and Gene) met up with Naru.
I don't own Ghost Hunt… or Inuyasha for that matter.
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Naru had, eventually, decided that he was going to investigate Gene's blabbering for himself.
I told Gene not to tell his twin unless he had no choice, telepathy be darned, but noooo, he just couldn't.
Can't lie to his brother that's all the way across the world for a few months at most as we get ourselves organized on having the least amount of people die, but can totally lie for a year and a half to a girl he accidentally spiritually attached himself to.
Thanks Gene. Really, thanks.
Regardless of my protests, Gene had told Naru how he found a semi-delusional girl (aka me) and that he was going around with her to prove her wrong only to constantly run into things that she had totally predicted. Gene only said I was delusional so his brother wouldn't think he had completely gone off the deep end, but still, I felt how Gene still had doubts about my story.
So far, Sakauchi and Kasai are having a fabulous time together, my eardrums still hurt from the concert we had to attend to get to Monk, John had seemingly yet to appear in Japan, and Masako was, as of yet, unavailable. A certain fateful visit to a hospital brought us to Ayako (apparently, when the world wants you to fall down a well in the middle of a living room, you will fall down a well in the middle of a living room, and time traveling makes you do it twice—Gene needs to grip ropes better), and Yasu seems to be enjoying the ride thus far, though he's not very involved just yet. High school does that to you.
Speaking of high school, I told my school that I'm doing a 'Specialized Interest Field Trip' where I'm going around getting job experience in my preferred field. Somehow, they actually freaking bought that and now I just get my course work sent in at various locations.
And of course, this is where Naru gets involved again.
Apparently, it's not 'proper behavior' to go around Japan with young high school kids and a bassist/a monk with the occasional joining of a doctor/miko.
So now, he and Lin are coming to Japan. Yippee.
Note the sarcasm.
That leads us to now. Gene and I managed to convince that the hotel room was not for various 'teenage' purposes. Kasai and Sakauchi are on the couch with Taka (just like before, she insisted on helping our unofficial SPR) discussing classwork and how to fake a poltergeist to get out of a math test. It's funny how they think I can't hear them, or that they think it might actually work.
Yasu called earlier, and he's doing fine, it seems. Ayako and Monk are investigating something for themselves, I think. I recently had told them the truth of what the little journey Gene and I are on. That I time traveled.
They… didn't exactly take it well. They were probably going on about proving me wrong, if I were to guess.
A knock came from the door.
"Guess they're here," Gene muttered. He had been sitting on the opposite bed that I was. He had a bunch of papers and books. Research, he says. Unlike me, he was being productive. I just at on 'my' bed and watched anime on his laptop.
Real productive time-traveling hero over here. Really, I promise. Inuyasha has time travel in it!
Gene looked through the peep hole in the door before opening the door to let Naru and Lin in. They came in like they owned the place, of course, but otherwise it didn't even seem that awkward to me.
It should, but it didn't.
After all, I technically had never met these two before, but yet I had in an alternate time line. Lin probably hated me all over again, and Naru probably thought of me like one would typically think of a pumpkin. Maybe I should be afraid that they'd hate me this time around, that Naru would not accept my nickname for him, that he would call me Taniyama instead of Mai, or that he'll just plain out not believe me at all and make Gene go home, leaving me here to deal with this nonsense by myself.
Considering that I still had to figure out the Urado thing, I really didn't want to be left alone to deal with it.
For some reason, though… I wasn't worried. If all else fails, Naru will most likely at least keep me a little while in exchange for some decent tea. So I had at least a little time to spend with him and Lin and Gene even if they do go back to England.
Gene had settled Naru on a space cleared of papers on 'Gene's' bed, and Lin had pulled a chair and a small table over to the bed area. Immediately, Lin had his laptop out and Naru already looked like a pompous know-it-all jackass.
"Noll," Gene said as he stood between the two beds, "this is Mai. Mai, this is Noll. Though, you already know him to some extent."
I smiled before reaching my hand across the gap. "Hi, I'm Mai, like Gene said. It's nice to meet you again," I said.
Naru looked at me quizzically, but took my hand and shook it. "Kazuya Shibuya. What do you mean when you say it's nice to meet me 'again'?"
I took my hand back. "You would use the same alias all over again," I sighed before turning to Lin. "Hello, Lin. I know you probably don't like me, but it's nice to see you too."
Lin, of course, barely acknowledged me before going right back to his laptop. Gene decided to seat himself next to Naru on the bed.
"I believe I asked you a question," Naru stated calmly, but I could tell he did not appreciate being ignored.
"Right, um, well," I stuttered. "So, I'm not entirely sure of the entirety of what Gene has told you, but he has told you that I came from the future, right?"
"He says you claim to be from the future," Naru replied.
"It's not a claim. I seriously came from the future," I said. "Well, it's more like I came from the future of an alternate timeline at this point. After all, Gene didn't die this time around."
Naru's eyebrow quirked up. "This time around…?"
Me and my stupid mouth just had to mention that… "When I went through this the first time around, I wasn't aware of any of this. I was just trying to balance school and work. I didn't know any of you, and even now I only recently met your brother, alternate timeline included. But in the timeline I came from… Gene died. It was dark, and he got hit by a car, and…"
Gene must've noticed my caught throat. "You still haven't really told me how I died past getting hit by a car," Gene said.
"I told you wearing black at night was a stupid idea," Naru stated.
"Noll!" Gene protested, and I think the conversation went telepathic at that point.
Basically, it was two sides of a mirror glaring at the other, having a conversation I couldn't keep up with. No one else was paying me any mind, so I took the chance to evaluate the three men with me.
Lin looked the same as ever. Literally nothing changed there.
Gene still had some odd penchant for darker colors, and both Davis twins had a tendency to look odd without a collar and/or a long-sleeved shirt. Today, Gene donned on an olive green American military-style jacket over a dark blue shirt with casual dark jeans. No one really was ever sure where Gene's shoes were, so a person could see his white socks covering his pale feet (no, I did not intend to see how pale Gene's feet are, he just literally can never find his shoes and thus is either bare-footed or wearing socks).
Naru… Yeah, he and Gene were definitely twins. They both had a penchant for darker colors and had similar outfit choices. Naru managed to wear dark jeans (like his brother) instead of a freaking pair of dress slacks. I had often wondered how many pairs of dress slacks he owned, so it was relieving that he knew that other options were available. Naru also wore a light gray shirt under a dark denim suit-style jacket.
Like I said, they usually look weird without collars and/or long sleeves. Not always, but usually they did. They must've realized this too, and even if Naru had mastered the art of 'I really don't give a damn', he also mastered how to not look like a total dork even if he dressed himself with his eyes closed. Gene had mastered this as he literally does get dressed nearly blind (Gene is not a morning person), and thus everything he had in his suitcase that I have seen on him matches anything else he has in there. Or so I guess, I never have felt inclined to search through his suitcase(s), and I don't intend to search at any point in time, ever.
Well, I finished my evaluation. The twins have not finished their argument, and whatever book Lin seems to be typing isn't finished either. The other three occupants of the room, as in Taka, Sakauchi, and Kasai, seemed to have left earlier as I was talking to Naru. It was around lunchtime, so I suspect that they went to eat. It's not like I'm their parent, and they usually come back pretty quick whenever they do leave Gene and I, so I wasn't worried.
… What are these two even arguing about now? Puppies? Gene's (metaphorical) pet rock George?
Lin isn't fazed. It's like the rest of us aren't even here.
...
…
…
"Well, I'm gonna make tea," I said and stood up towards the kitchenette behind the wall. Though, it's not like I really left the room. The archway was huge and they could still see me if they leaned towards the bed's headboard bit.
To be honest, I could have gotten in a rocket and left for Mars with how much those guys were paying attention.
By the time I was done making four cups, the twins had finally finished arguing complete nonsense—with Gene, it always became complete nonsense if you let him drag it on long enough. I walked in and laid a cup next to Lin. Deciding I didn't care if he accepted it or not, I gave the next cup to Gene, then the next to Naru, and settled myself back on 'my' bed with my cup.
"Oh, thank you, Mai," Gene said as he brought the cup to his lips. "Go on, idiot scientist. The tea's good."
Naru ignored his brother and stared at his cup, probably debating on taking a sip of what easily could be poison (can't say the thought hadn't crossed me when I worked at SPR). Tentatively, he took a sip, and thus deemed it worthy as he took another.
"So," Naru addressed to me. "You were explaining how you apparently met me before. We got… distracted after you said Gene supposedly died."
"Right," I said. "Gene died, and you and Lin came to Japan to find him. Sometime along the line, I think three or so months since you had come or something like that, you came to my school. There was a case at my school. Well, more accurately, the old school building. They wanted to destroy it and make it a gym or something, but it had one heck of a reputation for being haunted."
"I took a case on the basis of rumors?" Naru asked.
"Well, I think it was because of the little girl…" I hesitated. "A little girl was murdered, and her body was put there. Otherwise, I don't really know why you took the case. Anyway, so I accidentally broke a camera… and I also broke Lin a bit…"
"Broke Lin?" Gene asked.
"More accurately, his ankle, though it wasn't actually broken. Injured, yes, but not broken," I answered Gene before facing Naru again. "See, to find your brother, you made a fake-ish company to work as a 'base' to search around Japan. You called it Shibuya Psychic Research, or SPR for short."
"SPR?" Naru said.
"Yep, though it actually more-or-less stood for the Society of Psychical Research, I only really knew it as SPR. I got conned into helping with the case at my school, and then, for some reason, got a job at SPR. Mostly, I cleaned, did some filing, and made tea. I wasn't allowed to touch the mail or the phone, though."
"Hn," was all Naru grumbled as he drank more tea.
"How did the case end?" Gene said. "You never really told me much except that the land was uneven when we went to talk to your principal about it."
"Well, the first half of the case was land subsidence, but the other stuff was caused by this girl who didn't believe it was land subsidence. She believed herself psychic, and in a way she was, but she couldn't see spirits. However, she did cause one hell of a poltergeist. In the end, we had only finished the case up the day before the whole place completely collapsed."
"Isn't when you met most of the others? And when you gave Noll his nickname?" Gene asked.
"Others?" Naru echoed.
I thought of how to word it before responding. "Well, the others consist of a monk we call, surprise surprise, Monk. His actual name is Takigawa Houshou by the way. Then there was a priestess by the name of Ayako Matsuzaki, an extraordinarily young priest from Australia named John Brown, and then the famous TV medium Masako Hara. Later, we would meet with a really great researcher in high school student Osamu Yasuhara."
Naru nodded as he took in this info. "And this… nickname?"
"Oh!" I snickered as an elfin grin came to my face. "Well, you were definitely acting as a holier-than-thou narcissist most of the time, particularly the first day I had to work with you, so I decided to call you Naru. Naru the Narcissist."
Gene laughed at that. Naru… he scowled, but seemed to mildly accept it.
"Sounds like a heavily-accented 'Noll'," Naru commented.
"Which is why you never told me to call you otherwise. Also, you started calling me Mai after that," I said.
"Did you ever call me by Kazuya Shibuya?" Naru asked.
"No, I don't think I ever did. Not directly at least, and maybe in front of a client. In turn, I can only think of maybe twice you called me by Taniyama and not Mai. Both times, well, you were pretty pissed at me."
"I see," Naru said.
"So," Gene said. "Any questions for Mai Taniyama, Time-Traveling Princess?"
"Since when have I ever been a princess?" I said through clenched teeth.
"Mai certainly doesn't seem princess-like to me," Naru said.
"Why you!" I said.
Naru smirked at me. "Yes, Mai? I was only confirming what you said."
Geez, I officially meet the guy in this timeline for only fifteen minutes and already he's trying to rile me up.
"Oh, whatever. I'm cleaning the cups. Here, let me take yours, Your Narcissistic Highness," I said as I reached for Naru's empty teacup as he held it.
Our fingertips brushed, and then something really, really weird happened.
Suddenly, I felt myself thrown into a memory.
It was a small snippet, just me filing in the office when Naru calls for tea, and then skipping straight towards giving it to Mr. Bossman himself in his too-dark office.
Small as the memory might have been, it was still disorientating when I 'woke up' to find myself looking straight at Naru, still holding the teacup between us. I looked into his eyes, as did he, and that's when I knew.
That's when I bloody knew.
Naru and I had just shared a vision.
Just by sharing physical contact, we got thrown into a completely random memory.
Naru could see anything, from whenever he has had to save me, to when he rejected me, to anything in between.
If I was lucky, it was only memories involving, but on the other hand, it could only be memories that involve him.
….
It's official.
I'm so freaking screwed.
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I don't know about you guys, but it's hard to picture the Davis twins in anything other than what Naru and Gene usually wear. Looking up 'dark haired anime guys' helps exactly zero percent because they're all either wearing black, wearing suits, or wearing black suits.
Well, that's all for now. UNTIL NEXT TIME!