Chibi-Kari: I've brought in something that has bothered me in the manga for ages into this story! I hope you enjoy how I'm explaining what I thought of as a little hole in the plot. Thanks for keeping up with me everyone! I don't own anything, obviously!


Gone

Chapter 9 - Quigong


"It has to be someone in her class." Lin had said to him quickly.

Naru stood in the boy's restroom looking at his reflection. Lin had said that so he could stay focused on the task. He fisted his hand on the sink and pounded on the porcelain slightly. Mai had said Gene and Naru knew that no one in her class had that name. No one in the school had that name. He wasn't stupid. He had read the entire class lists. Gene was not a common Japanese name. She was talking about his brother…talking to his brother. The question wasn't whether that was the case; the real question was how long had this been going on. If he didn't have to save Mai before he damn well had to save her now. She was a tie, a clue, to his brother. The person Naru wanted more than anything or anyone.

"Bollucks!" It had been a long time since he had spoken in English and it felt good to get the frustration out. He had never been one to speak so crudely, but right this second was an exception.

He looked up to his reflection as it moved in a way that he was certain he hadn't moved. Was it the demon?

"Hello, Noll." The familiar voice reverberated throughout his head and stunned him for a moment.

"Gene?" His reflection smiled back at him.

"Yes. It seems you've gotten yourself in a rut." The voice sounded slightly sad and taunting at the same time. Naru wondered as the lips in the mirror moved while his remained still.

"How are you doing this? Why now?"

Gene shook his head quickly, "Now isn't the time for this, Noll. Time is running out quickly. He grows stronger every moment Mai is with him. Every second we waste here she grows farther away from me. I can't contact her anymore. She's import, Noll. Not just to you and me. She's important. And more powerful than either you or I could begin to imagine."

Naru shook his head, "She's completely untrained, Gene. Even if she had an obscene amount of power she couldn't utilize it and neither could the demon, thank God."

"Completely untrained? Ask Lin about that. Ask him about the hospital after you almost joined me here. You need to destroy this thing, Naru. It will cause more destruction than you can imagine if you let it consume Mai." Gene started to fade.

"Gene!" Naru snapped reaching forward towards the glass.

"I'll be back. Just go to a mirror. Mai needs me." With that Naru was left to his own reflection.

He stood for a moment letting Gene's warning run through his mind. How could Mai possibly be trained? She didn't know anything about paranormal investigation. She didn't even know she was psychic before he met her and there was no way she could get training without his knowledge. Gene told him to ask Lin and that was exactly what he would do.

His steps echoed through the eerily quiet hallways. He had hoped he would never be back here after the false case and now he was presented with something that would normally be outside of his realm. Dealing with demons was not something he wanted to do on a daily basis. They were powerful and deadly. One wrong move and you could lose everything. And he was a researcher. His entire purpose was to get scientific proof that ghosts existed. It wasn't to help these people. It wasn't to put his life on the line to save people he didn't even know.

He opened the door with a quick flick of his wrist. The principal and their other guests had left the base when they couldn't give any more information. Naru had asked them to stay downstairs and they obliged, even Mimi who had put up quite the fight before Ken was able to convince her that she could possibly save these children.

"Lin." His voice was hard and cold. Commanding. He was sick of all these secrets. Not that he wasn't the one with, possibly, the biggest secret.

"Yes?" The man had turned from his computer and Naru could see the research on Yaoguai that was on the screen.

"When I was in the hospital that last time did Mai say anything?"

"Say anything? She was worried." Lin sounded slightly confused, something highly unusual for the Chinese man.

"Something she shouldn't have known about. Maybe it didn't seem like a big deal at the time, but it didn't sit well with you after?" Naru pressed on.

Lin looked thoughtful for a moment before his eyes widened marginally. "There was something. I thought maybe you had told her about it because I certainly didn't."

"What was it, Lin?"

"She asked me if you had used Qigong and if that was why you ended up in the hospital. She told me that she thought it was only used to cure illnesses and didn't understand why you had gotten injured from it. I thought it was strange that she used the Chinese name for it. I didn't think it was a very popular idea in Japan. I thought she would have mentioned something like Tai Chi instead." Lin shook his head slightly. "She used the Mandarin pronunciation for it, not the Japanese."

"It isn't common here and I certainly didn't tell her about it." Naru quickly turned on the rest of the team.

"I don't even know what it is." Bou-san held his hands up as the rest shook their heads.

"I vaguely know what it is…it has something to do with the ki, right? It is about fixing life force with breathing or something, right? I don't know much about it. My father said anyone who practiced it was crazy and that it could actually lead to psychosis if it wasn't done with a teacher. I certainly don't know enough to tell Mai about it." Ayako looked up to Naru with wide eyes, "Her father was a psychologist. Couldn't he have known about it?"

"It's possible." Naru looked up thinking about the complications if she was versed in Qigong.

"Why did you ask about that, Naru?" Lin's voice broke him from his thoughts.

"Gene told me to."

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Lin slammed his hand down on the desk.

"Exactly what I said, Lin. Gene showed up in the mirror and told me that Mai wasn't untrained and that if the demon took her it would be detrimental."

"Not untrai-No." Lin spun towards his computer before typing furiously.

Naru strode across the room to his panicking assistant, "What is it, Lin?"

"I'm contacting my father. He is well versed in Yaoguai. He warned me that if anyone had had training with their ch'I that it was highly dangerous. He said that the spiritual energy of someone trained was more powerful and could be manipulated by the Yaoguai. I had said that no one was trained so he told me not to worry about it. I didn't think any of these children would be trained. Would even know about ch'i. Naru, this changes everything."

"What do you mean?" He looked down at the Chinese man in front of him.

Lin stopped typing momentarily before turning to his young ward. "We may have to destroy Mai."


TBC


Chibi-Kari: I hope you enjoyed this chapter! I should be updating several times a month and finish this off rather quickly! Or at least that is the plan! I hope everyone had a good holiday. Please leave me a little review!