Destined Ties:
Chapter 10:
Naru opened his eyes slowly. He felt like he had slept in an uncomfortable position. He looked around in confusion. The walls of his bedroom were not yellow and he didn't sleep with a pink blanket. His eyes fell on a slumbering Mai and he knew where he was.
He had fallen asleep in Mai's room and she hadn't woken him up. Instead she had covered him with a blanket and left him asleep. Strangely enough he didn't mind. He felt unusually refreshed from a full night of uninterrupted sleep and he didn't remember dreaming about Gene.
He stood up and checked the time. It was 10 o'clock already. He really had slept for a long time. It was unusual for him to sleep any later than 8 in the morning. Naru debated whether or not to wake Mai up due to the late time and decided to leave her. She looked comfortable and surprising adorable.
Naru shook his head. He didn't just think that Mai looked adorable. She was someone under his employ that was helping him out. It wasn't appropriate.
When Mai walked into the kitchen bleary eyed she found Naru making toast like he had been in her dream. He smiled at her when he saw her and she blinked. Normally he just nodded at her when he saw her in the morning-he had appeared to not be a morning person.
"I'm sorry for not waking you up, you looked deeply asleep," she said.
"It's fine," Naru answered. "Would you like strawberry jam?"
Mai peered probingly at Naru. He didn't have any dark bags under his eyes. He must have slept well which made her happy.
"Yes, please," she accepted and sat down at the table. "Is Lin coming around this morning?"
Naru put a plate of toast in front of her and sighed.
"Actually, I've only just woken up so I haven't made arrangements. Lin will probably get worried and come round on his own."
As if on cue the front door beeped and Lin rushed in looking worried. When he saw them sitting together at the table his face cleared in relief.
"It's not like you to not contact me," Lin noted.
"I've only just woken up," Naru grumbled.
The omnouji sat down opposite him. "That is rare. You look better though."
"He fell asleep in my room," Mai explained innocently.
Lin watched as Noll's face flushed red. Was there something he was missing? Oliver Davis was actually looking refreshed for once and had slept all night in a female's bedroom. Luella would have a heart attack if she heard about that and Madoka would get all too happy about it.
"Don't you dare tell my mother," Naru hissed under his breath to him. "She will get the wrong idea completely. We haven't told her about Mai anyway."
"I had no intention," Lin said truthfully. "This may get mentioned when the curse has been destroyed though. We will probably have to write a report."
Naru scowled. There was no way that that detail was going to end up in a case report that was going to be read by everyone as SPR including his parents. Whilst he was going to have to mention Mai, he would give the impression that everything occurred in a scientific environment and not in a bedroom in his apartment.
Mai was struggling to follow the conversation and gave up in favour of eating. She didn't always understand some of the things between Naru and Lin.
"Did you make any progress with the case last night?" Lin changed to a different tack.
"Mai found out some significant things. Kogoro Shibuya is the family member that was first cursed and the person likely to have cast the curse is his mistress," Naru explained. "This means that we can focus all of our research on that person now."
"Did you find out the name of the mistress? I could check for anything mentioning her."
"Yoko. I didn't hear her surname," Mai contributed. "I don't think you would be able to find anything about her. Aren't mistress supposed to be a secret?"
"That is true," Lin admitted. "Should we consider the possible scenarios that led to the curse instead?"
Naru retrieved his notebook and Lin unpacked his laptop whilst Mai cleared up the table.
"The most obvious suggestion is that he stopped seeing her and she was hurt enough to curse him," Lin began.
Mai shook her head. She had a feeling this was going to happen. Lin and Naru didn't seem to be too good with understanding females.
"No, that doesn't sound plausible. That isn't a strong enough reason to curse the entire Shibuya family line."
Her employer gave her a look of approval. "Mai does have a good point. What do you suggest then?"
She tried to picture the situation. If she was dumped by a rich man, she would be sad and angry about it, but she wouldn't destroy the lives of his descendants. A mistress wasn't supposed to be permanent. Unless she didn't know he was married.
"Perhaps she didn't know he was married and she was mistress. Then she found out and cursed him and his descendants," she paused. "I still think we can't be sure yet."
Naru took notes whilst she was talking. "What makes you believe that she didn't know he was married?"
Mai thought back to her dream from the previous night. She had been too happy for someone that was only seeing a man on the sly.
"He was married at the time, they could only meet on certain days and she didn't understand why that was. She was also very happy to see him. If she was his mistress, she shouldn't be that happy to see a man cheating on his wife."
When she said it out loud she realised how weak it sounded. She just had a feeling that it was the right answer and usually her instincts were correct.
There was a moment of silence and she could see they were both thinking it over.
"Mai could be right," Naru conceded. "I have a possible addition to the theory as well. She could have had a child before she found out."
That would explain the targeting of the descendants rather than just the man himself. Mai thought that it all added up quite well.
Lin was busy typing away and frowning over his laptop screen.
"To add to both of your suggestions, I have something else to add. I noticed that Kogoro Shibuya died in the same year that his second child was born. This could also be a factor in the curse," he said.
Mai was the first to summarise. "She had his illegitimate child around the same time as his actual child and then she found out that he had been married so she cursed him and his future family as payback. It is starting to add up."
The narcissist nodded in satisfaction. "We can't be sure on the accurate timeframe yet, but it does make sense. I am also interested in the exact method she chose to curse the family line because Mai said that she appeared to be normal. That something else we can build on."
"I am also interested in the occurrences of the murder attempts," Lin added. "There is a pattern for them. I haven't been able to map it accurately until now because the curse only targets one person at once."
Mai noticed that Naru's eyes narrowed as he said that.
"What is the pattern?"
Lin turned his laptop around to show them a graph.
"The attacks only happen on certain days in the week. If this is correct, there should be an attempt tomorrow. If my theory is confirmed, we will be also be predict all future attempts."
Naru squinted at the graph. "It does seem to add up. I can't explain why the selection of certain days though."
Mai had an idea of why. "Yoko said that they only met on certain days. These days could be the same days as the attacks."
Naru and Lin looked impressed with her.
"You're right. We seem to have found an explanation for almost everything," Lin observed.
The narcissist was in agreement. "Honestly all we need to do now is to find out the method she used and find a way to break it. Having Mai with us has been very beneficial."
Mai inwardly glowed at the compliment. She did like to feel appreciated for her abilities rather than doubted and disbelieved like she had been before.
"Can't you summon her spirit?" she asked. "You could do a peaceful exorcism that way."
Lin smiled sadly. "Whilst as an omnouji, I can do that: it's actually impossible in this case. I don't have enough information on her to be able to do that. We only know her first name. That isn't enough."
Naru closed his notebook and sighed. "Besides that, do you really think we could exorcise her peacefully?"
Mai had to admit that Naru was right. She was very accustomed to peaceful exorcisms, she had forgotten that it wasn't always possible. A peaceful exorcism was also a lot more than Yoko deserved.
For dinner Mai made the three of them beef stew like she had in her dream. It had become the norm to avoid discussing the case at mealtimes. Instead Naru told her about a complex case that he and Lin had spent months working on.
"In the end we used a medium to ask some of the victims about the killer," Naru explained. "One of them provided the information we needed and we peacefully exercised the spirit."
"Could you use that for this case?" Mai said thoughtfully.
She didn't miss the look between Naru and Lin and she winced. Eugene Davis had been a medium. She was doing a bad job of keeping his mind off his dead brother.
"I used my psychometry and it isn't useful in the same way," Naru answered shortly and stood up. "I'm going to review the case notes in my room. Mai, I will see you at the usual time."
He strode off leaving Mai and Lin staring after him. Lin was the first to break the awkward silence.
"Taniyama-san, it's not your fault at all. Noll is in a stressful situation and he acts like this regularly. This is just the first time it's happened in front of you," Lin informed her gently. "He will be normal the next time he sees you. He doesn't hate you, he's actually quite fond of you."
This made Mai realise how much she appreciated Lin's presence. Then she processed the last part.
"How do you know that he is fond of me?" she asked curiously.
She hadn't noticed any special behaviour on his part. It wasn't like she had never had a boyfriend before so she knew how men acted around girls they liked.
Lin gave her a small smile. "I've never seen him spend so much time around a female willingly let alone make them breakfast and sleep in their bedroom."
This made blush. When it was said like that, it did sound like she and Naru were involved romantically.
"It's not like that," she protested weakly hoping that she wasn't blushing.
Lin's smile only grew wider. "It's okay, Taniyama-san. It's good to see Noll interacting with someone new and well, female. He hasn't had much experience with them so be understanding of him."
Their strange conversation ended there and Mai wasn't sure what Lin had been implying. It sounded like he had given her approval to be around Naru and that she should cut him slack.
As Lin had predicted Naru made no mention of the earlier incident when he came into her room later on. He was acting normally and settled into the chair next to her bed like usual and opened his notebook.
"We are going in order of priority this evening," he announced. "I want to confirm if Lin's theory is right."
The psychic lay down in bed and snuggled up to the pillow. It was going to be harder to get to sleep because she hadn't had much to do all day. She settled for completely clearing her mind and soon her vision changed into bright colours.
She got up as normal and Naru was waiting for her with toast. Then her dream warped into later on in the day. Mai noted the time on the clock. It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon and she and Naru were poring over old documents at the table again.
"Since we've finished that pile, I'll get the others. These ones are older so be careful with them," he warned and stood up from the table.
He walked over to the glass fronted cabinet in the corner of the living room and took out the documents. As he turned around the cabinet began to shake and Mai noticed her vision warping.
She shouted out a warning, but it was too late.
The cabinet fell down on top of Naru and crushed him to the floor. Almost immediately the blood began to seep across the carpet and his outstretched hand was completely covered in glass shards.
Mai woke up with a loud scream and tears pouring down her face. Naru was by her side in seconds.
"Mai, what did you see?" he demanded.
It took a moment to arrange her thoughts and focus on the question. Her breath wouldn't stop coming in short gasps. Her breath hitched when Naru grasped her hand.
"Calm down, Mai. Breathe slowly."
Mai slowed her breathing as requested and calmed down enough to speak weakly.
"You died. The glass cabinet in the living room fell on top of you. There was lots of blood."
Instead of replying immediately Naru fetched her a tissue and wiped her face for her.
"I will make sure that doesn't happen tomorrow," he said eventually. "At least we know Lin is right now. Are you going to be okay now?"
"I think so," Mai lied.
It didn't fool Naru. He took one glance at her and raised his eyebrows.
"I'll make you some tea," he said. "Come with me."
A/N: The next chapter is turning out to be mostly fluff. I hope no one minds.