AmyNChan: Okay, so this took a while to get out, and for that I apologize. ^^;

Naru: It is time to get on with the story, is it not?

AmyNChan: Yup! I don't own Naru, Mai, Lin, Madoka, or any cannon Ghost Hunt character~! *^_^*

Naru: Or SPR.

AmyNChan: or SPR… *sad*

"Thank you for meeting with us," Oliver stated, looking evenly at their three guests. "I promise this will not take very long."

"Not at all, my family and I will be happy to get this matter sorted as swiftly as possible," Sawamura-san stated, sitting upright in his chair. The stress he was undergoing was very evident in his expression and posture. Beside him was a lovely woman, despite her aging features. Her hair was a graying brown and her warm eyes were chocolate. There was a certain type of glow about the woman that told Mai she had recently found a deep happiness despite her current worries. The young woman knew the look well. It held no secrets, only two slightly conflicting emotions. The ring on her left hand looked sparkling new. She must have taken very good care of it.

The third person sitting in the room was Isuzu herself. She had come to Sawamura-san's office the same time Oliver had and had promptly been invited to come along for this test. The adolescent had been wary of accepting such an abrupt invitation, but had begrudgingly agreed when encouraged by her mother and assured that the 'miss ghost hunter' would be in attendance.

This was why Mai was also in the room instead of in base where Yui and Kazi were now asleep. It had taken the young girl another two hours before she had actually fallen asleep. Two hours where she had sat on Oliver's lap, Mai choosing not to release him from the girl's grip. Now—at ten o'clock—Madoka and Lin were keeping an eye on them.

Mai shut out any brightness from the room and set the light on the table in front of the trio, then backed off to let Oliver do his own thing. He raised an eyebrow but did not comment on her actions. Mai felt confused. Was she supposed to have done something else? She could not think of anything else that needed to be prepared for this test. Oliver turned on the light.

"Please focus on the light," Oliver instructed using calm, soothing voice. Mai felt herself being lulled by the evenness and security in his tone and forced herself to avoid looking at the light. Instead, she focused on the faces of the three guests in the room. "Please breathe with the light."

Mai watched as the breathing patterns of each person slowly but surely came into synch. It took much more time than she remembered to be normal, as the young girl seemed to be struggling. Quite possibly resisting. Eventually, however, all three were breathing smoothly and deeply with the light's calming pulse. "Slowly.

"Relax," Oliver's voice was simple. Perhaps that was why he was so effective at this. "You feel sleepy."

This first suggestion was taken well. Eyelids drooped and the breathing became deeper.

"You can hear yourself breathing," he continued, his voice never wavering. Never showing any hesitation or doubt that he knew what they were thinking. Or rather, the suggestions he was placing within them for now. "Please count the breaths in your mind…"

Oliver trailed off with his request, and Mai had a feeling that he was allowing time for their sluggish minds to comply with his request. As she observed them, she noticed that their eyes seemed a bit hazier. More clouded. Mai resisted the childlike urge to wave her hand in front of their faces. That would have proven a point she already knew to be true. They were already deeply situated in a hypnotic trance.

"Tonight, something is going to happen," Oliver told them. Mai could tell they were only partially hearing his words, only faintly able to grasp the concept that he was actually speaking to them. "The book that is in my hand now. It will be placed in this room tonight. This book will move tonight."

The words were only given a moment to sink in before Mai knew she had to turn on the bright fluorescent light. The three guests in the room blinked and rubbed their eyes, not having expected the sudden switch back into reality.

"Oh, dear," the woman yawned delicately. "What was…?"

Three pairs of eyes were drawn to a book in Oliver's hand. The suggestion had taken.

"Sawamura-san, might I have the key to this room?" he asked, holding out his hand expectantly for the key. The elder man complied easily as he slipped the correct key off of his personal ring. Oliver casually set the book upon the table as he pocketed the key. "Thank you. Please go about your normal evening routine."

"A-all right," the woman complied, now more awake. She turned to her daughter. "Let's go, Isuzu."

The girl complied only to her mother's voice, seemingly keen to exit the room as swiftly as possible. She only halted herself to speak to Mai.

"Thanks for being here, miss ghost hunter," she whispered as she attempted to quickly breeze past Mai to get to the door. The woman with calm brown eyes and a gentle disposition held her up for only a moment, giving the girl a warm smile.

"You can call me Mai, okay?" she introduced herself amiably. Isuzu seemed to be surprised at the kindness and returned it with a sudden hug. Surprised, the woman only halted a moment before giving the girl a hug in response, somehow knowing that the girl was reaching out for some sort of affirmation or kindness. Mai was only too happy to give it to her.

It was only a few more minutes before the family left the paranormal experts behind. Knowing that she should probably get some real work done before her boss had a coronary, Mai grabbed the piece of chalk from her back pocket and drew a circle around the book Oliver had placed on the table. The man himself set to work setting up a thermal camera right beside a night-vision camera and hooking them both up to recording equipment.

"I shouldn't be surprised anymore," Oliver stated randomly, causing Mai to look up in confusion. Since when did the great Na-Oliver ever say something randomly? Where was the catch? She narrowed her eyes defensively, attempting to sneak past that ever-standing guard of his just enough to catch his drift. No such thing happened. She was completely left in the dark and it seemed as though he would not be giving her any hints.

"Surprised at what? Your ego?" she jabbed. She felt far too off-kilter around him right now, too wary. Not like she was uncomfortable—for some reason she always felt safe near Oliver—but that she felt very unprepared. She did not know how much he had changed—if at all—over the past four years. His aversion to touch seemed to go down enough to be climbed on by two children and he seemed easier to debate with now, but other than that Mai was lost. It was easier to try and bait him into one of their old conversations than to open herself up to him again. Open herself to the possibility of getting hurt.

"Your ability to inspire trust from others. According to her file, Isuzu-san hasn't responded to or attached herself to anyone new within the past year," he stated easily, ignoring the jab. He knew what her game was and he was debating on whether or not he should play it. He felt that insulting her intelligence would be counterintuitive at this point, but he did want to respond with a jab of his own. The difficulties of human interactions…

"Really? She seems so sweet," Mai mused aloud, easily distracted from her own point. She looked out of the door that the family of three had just left from, thinking on her encounters with the girl. What she had said and how she had reacted to her.

"Hello? Is this SPR?"

"Isuzu."

"I'm new to everything, so it usually takes me a while to fish out the teenagers who are lurking around after hours, making out or other gross things or trying to get into the rides after hours. I sorta thought you were one of them for a moment… sorry about that."

"You, too, miss ghost hunter."

"Mom just left me there to go talk to Sawamura-shi because the park had just shut down for the night."

Hold on. That last one… That was when Isuzu-san had been telling her and Oliver about her paranormal experience when they had first met. About not wanting to go into the fun house. The –shi suffix was often used for persons who the individual did not know, but held great respect for. But it had sounded sarcastic, almost habitual to say his name like that.

"Why would she call her own father that?" she questioned aloud, her need to do her thinking vocally having not been an aspect of her personality that changed over time. "And when I talked to her after leaving base, she didn't tell me her family name either. Maybe she's not used to it…?"

"What led you to that conclusion?" Oliver asked, prodding her forward. He rather liked the logic that Mai seemed to have picked up over the years. It made arguing with her more challenging and therefore commanded more of his attention when she spoke. It was something he somehow liked, even if it did make him feel as though he were losing a part of the Mai he had known those years ago.

"A feeling," she answered, surprising Oliver. Maybe she had not gotten completely logical over time. He did not resist the urge to smirk in familiarity.

Mai frowned when she saw his smirk, feeling as though he were looking down on her and belittling her. It was true. There was something in her heart that told her Isuzu-san was not used to something about her situation. She could get no further specifics than that. Sor-ry that she could not do better!

"I see," he stated, clicking the camera on. Everything was in its place when the duo left the room, locking it securely behind them. The two walked in somewhat companionable silence as they walked across the now empty amusement park, side by side. Mai felt her anger slowly ebb away as she realized that she had not had a civil conversation—simple chit chat—since had returned. She found herself wanting to ask him something as they walked, but her tongue felt swollen and her lips sealed themselves. Her reaction was nothing of the paranormal sort, just her wondering what exactly she should do or say now that she and Oliver were alone.

Should she ask him how England was?

No, not with the cold shoulder she had been giving him lately.

But why had she been giving him the cold shoulder?

Because he had offended her by assuming things about her personal life again.

But how was he ever going to know if she did not grow up and tell him that he was wrong?

Would that not be great?

To tell him that he was wrong?

Mai smiled to herself as she thought about it. Being able to look Oliver Davis square in the eye and tell him he was wrong and be completely sure of it would be amazing. She wondered why she did not do so earlier. Oh yeah, she had been mad at him for being wrong in the first place. Oh, well, now she could—

"Mai, who are those children?" he inquired, catching her off-guard. She turned to look at him with a frown, not believing her poor luck.

"Come again?" she asked.

"Who are those children?"

"I thought you already had a preconceived notion as to who they were," she stated, emphasizing the idea of his assumptious tendencies sarcastically. More than anything, she was annoyed that he had taken the good moment for himself again. Oliver shot her a look she could not decipher, but it was gone in the blink of an eye. Instead, he looked coolly upon her.

"New facts have come to light that oppose that idea," he returned smoothly, causing Mai's irritation to flare.

"You could just admit that you were wrong and then I'd tell you. Don't good scientists admit when they're not right?" Mai challenged in irritation as they passed by the famed 'spinny ride'. When Oliver did not answer her, she continued. "Ya'know, out with old ideas and in with new concepts or something or another? Frigging Narcissist and your stupid pride..."

Oliver did not respond to Mai's statement. He knew in his head that the words she had said made some kind of sense in a theoretical standpoint. Intelligent scientists always took into account that previous theories might be proven to be wrong. However, he was never wrong. Cue pride.

"You know if you did psychometry on those kids to figure out where they came from I will kill you, right?" Mai turned on him with a dangerous glint in her eye. Oliver refused to be intimidated by her verbal threat.

"I would overpower you before you had the chance," he deflected, physically able to complete such a task. The woman visibly bristled at his avoidance of the implied question.

"Did. You. Use. Psychometry?" she seethed, stepping in front of her boss to prevent any sort of forward progression. He attempted to sidestep her only to be halted again. Her hands were balled into fists in her side and she looked rather murderous for a woman whose head barely reached his shoulders. Still, he knew that she was not angry at him for being his stubborn self, but rather mad at him for the sake of the children she was guarding. She was worried for their privacy and took their wellbeing to heart.

She would make a good mother to a very lucky child one day.

"It's not a matter of whether I have, it's a matter of whether it's possible," Oliver attempted to assure her. Instead of consolation or relief on her face, her expression morphed into one of defense and confusion.

"So you tried it on them?" she accused. Oliver pinched his nose.

"I never said that."

"You never denied it."

"When they climbed on my lap, I was expecting their memories to push onto my subconscious, as many do," Oliver explained, his voice surprisingly calm despite the growing frustration he felt. To his great relief, Mai seemed to realize the best thing to do was to stay quiet for a moment and listen to what he had to say. "Usually, even though children do not have many memories yet in their lifetimes, they are such highly emotional human beings that their emotions and thoughts trigger something in my abilities. This did not happen with Yui and Kazi while they were sitting on me in base. I wondered if something were wrong with either my abilities or with them. I waited to see if anything would change while you left Yui on my lap. A flash, an image, anything. In the end, I saw nothing."

"So you sat there and waited for her memories to show themselves to you, but it didn't work," Mai surmised. Oliver, not feeling the need to say any more, nodded. It was a few moments of silence that next captured the duo. They did not speak, each lost in their own thoughts on the subject. Oliver wondered how his abilities could not work on the two children and what implications such a lack of events may have. Mai wondered if perhaps the children were a bit more powerful than she and Gene had originally assumed.

"Mai, there is something different about those children. Given your interactions, it's unlikely that you simply adopted them because you wanted to settle down and start a family quite yet," Oliver stated bluntly. Mai sighed with an air of frustration. Trust this man to have absolutely no tact whatsoever.

"You still have no freaking manners or tact," she stated bluntly, glaring at her boss. By now, she was no longer blocking his path towards base, but he was no longer pursuing that. Instead, he was pursuing an answer. As such, neither of them moved for the next few moments, their only companion being the brisk night air.

"Mai, tell me. Who are those children?" he asked, his blue eyes burning with curiosity. While it was true that he was being pushed by his scientific mind and personal questions over the interactions of their abilities and his own, another factor pushed him so far as to pry this much. Somehow, in some way, these children had become a very integral part of Mai's life. Their well-being drove her decisions and it seemed as though she were already searching as to how to return the children home. For whatever reason, Oliver found it in himself to want to be of use in this endeavor. To help her as much as he possibly could.

Mai searched his blue orbs for a moment and then turned away. She could not name the emotion or drive that caused his eyes to burn with such intensity, but a part of her had shuddered happily when she had seen it. She turned from him to cover her weakness.

"You really wanna know?" she asked. Oliver did not speak, nor did he nod. He knew the answer would come regardless of what he chose to do. After all, as she had proven only a few moments ago, this was still Mai. However, the answer he received was not one that he had been expecting.

"Join the club."

AmyNChan: lololol, take that, Naru! XD

Mai: *raises hands* I don't know who they are either. The only thing I knew that he didn't was that they weren't mine!

Naru: Is it possible Gene knows who they are?

Mai and Naru: *look at Gene*

Gene: *floating around innocently, then looks to you all with a smile* Read and review so my brother and his would-be wife can just get over themselves and make out already.

AmyNChan, Mai, Naru: GENE!

Gene: hahahaha!