Authors Note: Hello everyone, just want to say a huge thanks again for all the support and reviews, it feels awesome to know that there are so many people out there who are enjoying the story so far! Please keep reading and enjoying.
I'd also like to point out there may be a few things wrong with the story I.E. Mai's apartment number but if I'm honest I can't remember what the number is so I've just expanded on it! If you notice anything really bad feel free to drop me a message or review :D I alway welcome feedback! Thank you guys!
Mai P.O.V
Dreamworld
Mai opened her eyes to once again find herself on the spiritual plane "Gene I swear to Darwin if you are here to question me again I will kick your ass, I don't care that you are dead I will do it!" She heard a chuckle from behind her
"Swear to Darwin?" Gene questioned eyebrow raised
"Well I believe in evolution and Darwin is the 'founder of that'"
"HAHAHA!" Gene doubled over laughing "Aww you are so weird Mai"
"Hysterical! Why are you here Gene?" Mai asked
"Just thought I'd check in on my favourite lady" Gene winked
Mai just rolled her eyes "okay well I'm going back to sleep then" she said while lying down
"Alright!" he said while walking over to her with his hands up "I think I'm here to tell you about a new case you need to take" Gene said
"then talk, I'm extremely exhausted Gene, apparently getting ripped open has that effect on you"
"fair enough Mai but you have to see this first so that you can tell the others what case to go on" Gene said
"Alright" Mai said as the background started to blur and shift as it changed, they now were both standing in a narrow, low lit hallway. It looked like a new building with the smell of sawdust and paint hanging in the air, Mai turned to see a young man maybe 17 or 18, he had long blonde curly hair that hid his eyes, he was absorbed in a book as he walked through the hallway, they followed him until he reached a set of stairs. Mai felt the temperature suddenly drop and she saw as a dark shadow formed behind the boy as he stood at the top of the stairs, reaching out the figure lunged for the boys back. Mai and Gene watched as he went flying head first down the stairs, just as they saw a woman running out to help him the vision snapped and then disappeared so that Mai and Gene were just back in the normal plane.
"Interesting…" was all Mai said, Gene shot her a questionable look "What?"
"Nothing just never thought you'd describe a scene like this as interesting" Gene stated
"Well there's not much else I can say, the important thing is what time frame this happened in? Is it past, present or future?" Mai asked
"I'm not sure, I have a feeling it's a past vision, this is the case you'll need to convince Naru to take next" Gene said
Mai snorted "yeah and by convince you mean beat the shit out of him until he agrees?"
"Well normally I wouldn't condone violence but there is always an exception." Gene smirked
Turning to Gene Mai asked "does Naru know you haven't moved on yet?"
"Who do you think told him to come find you?" Gene said
"I should have guessed" Mai said as her vision started to fade and her image of Gene was replaced with the dark ceiling of Naru's spare room.
Real World
Mai sighed while sitting up in bed, Gene was always cryptic and never even gave her a name as to who was in the vision. Mai pushed herself out of the soft bed to explore Naru's apartment, opening the door she could see the one opposite was the bathroom, slipping down to the end of the corridor she saw one of the doors was open slightly peering in Mai made out the vague shape of Naru asleep on the bed. Turning around she opened the other door, flicking on a switch she saw that the spare room was in fact a study. Bookcases were secured onto every wall, along with a very large writing desk that sat in the corner, the only thing that looked out of place was the running machine placed in the middle of the room. 'Makes sense since he's working all the time he probably doesn't have time to go to the gym' Mai thought to herself, she moved over to the desk to find a bunch of files scattered over it. They looked like the old case files she use to organise at SPR, flicking through them she could see that they were all open case files 'maybe one of these was the one Gene was talking about'. Sitting down in the huge leather computer chair Mai started to rummage through the files to see if she recognised the one in her vision, after 20 minutes of rummaging she found the one she was looking for labelled 'Adachi', inside there was a picture of a happy family, one of the members was the boy she'd seen in her dream surrounded by two young girls and presumably his mum and dad, all five of them shared the same blonde curly hair. Across from the photo was a description of the house and the fact that Hiroki had been recently pushed down the stairs, Naru had written some notes next to it which questioned whether or not the teenager had just tripped since he was trying to read a book and walk at the same time but there was no doubt, it was definitely the boy from Mai's vision.
Mai grabbed the folder, turned off the light and walked straight into Naru's room, not even bothering to turn on the light she walked up to his bed where he was sleeping on his side, it was strange seeing him sleep, it was like all his arrogance and narcistic ways just left him when he slept.
'Shame' Mai thought as she stretched her arms out and dropped the file straight onto his face
"What the…?!" Naru yelled, he turned over rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hand
"This one" Mai stated while standing over him
"What?" Naru asked in his still exhausted state
"This case" Mai stated pointing to the file "we need to take this case"
"And you had to wake me up at 4am to tell me that?" Naru asked as he sat up in bed, his hair was dishevelled and his black t-shirt was crumpled, Mai had to admit she took some joy in seeing him so disorganised
"The sooner the better" she said, Naru sighed, reached over to turn on the bed side light and picked up the file while rubbing his eyes. He frowned and turned his gaze back to Mai
"There is nothing here to suggest anything spiritual" Naru said
"Yeah cause people always get pushed down the stairs by nothing" Mai stated
"He was reading a book the chances are he tripped on his own two feet Mai" Naru stated
"Call it whatever you want but that's the next case we need to go on"
"And why are you so certain about that?"
"Because Gene told me" Mai said, she proceeded to turn around to leave Naru's room but before she could get to the door Naru grabbed her wrist
"What did he tell you?" Naru demanded
"Hey let go of my wrist" Mai squirmed but couldn't get free of Naru's grasp, Naru's blue eyes drilled into hers "FINE! He showed me a vision of the boy in that file getting pushed down the stairs and he was pushed not tripped, now please let go" Mai said through gritted teeth
"What else did he say?" Naru asked, still holding Mai's wrist, her back was now against the wall and the contact was starting to make her head dizzy. Her whole arm felt like it was burning where Naru held it and Mai didn't want to use her powers and accidentally break his arm but being this close was affecting her in more ways than she cared to admit.
"Nothing!"
"How long has he been talking to you?" Naru almost yelled, he was a few inches away from her face and she could see how worked up he was, his eyes looked frantic and he was breathing heavily.
"Not long, he appeared to me on that first case back at the Steel works" she said, Naru blinked and processed what Mai said, he was standing so close that Mai could feel his body heat and the tension that was rising between them. Naru suddenly looked straight into her eyes, Mai froze, her heart stuck in her throat and the room was beginning to blur behind him. Suddenly realisations crossed Naru's face, the time, the dark and the fact that they weren't in the most modest clothing. He let go of Mai's arm like it was on fire, trying to gain some composure Naru turned away from her and ran a hand through his hair.
"He never mentioned why he was here? Or why he suddenly appeared then?" He asked
"All he's said to me is that he doesn't know either, he thinks he may be able to help with cases but he isn't sure" Mai sighed "Maybe you should try using your twin telepathic connection with him?"
"Well now that I know I might" he paused…"But not at 4 in the morning" Naru stormed back to his bed, jumped back in and pulled the covers over his head like a defiant child trying to skip school.
Mai just stood in silence for a few moments, finally she turned around and left, leaving Naru to sleep she decided she'd spend the rest of the night/early morning doing some background research.
9am the next morning
An irritated and sleep deprived Naru sat at the end of the coffee table in SPR's office, the rest of the group sat quietly waiting on information about the newest case they were leaving for. All expect Mai who stood at the other side of the room leaning against the wall that led into the kitchen, hands crossed over her chest with a laid back posture along with a vacant stare.
"So what's the next case then bossman?" Yasu asked, Mai could feel the tense air in the room and how eager the group was to ask her different questions but hopefully by presenting them with a new case she'd be able to avoid their curiosity. It had been bad enough having to stay in Naru's apartment if she was going to be here for longer then she'd have to find a better place to stay so she could avoid 20 questions every morning.
"The case isn't too far away it's about a 3-hour drive North in one of the dense forests. There isn't much to go on, the Adachi family, mum, dad and 3 children." He said gesturing to the file on the table, "recently the eldest teenage boy fell-"
"PUSHED" Mai shouted, Naru glared at her
"He was pushed down the stairs in the house while the rest of his family was outside."
"Are you sure this is something we can help with? He didn't just slip?" Monk asked
"That was my first thought but with more consideration I think it's something more sinister than that" Naru finished
Mai snorted 'yeah thanks to me' she thought "What other supernatural things have been happening?" Monk asked
"Not an awful lot, temperature changes, furniture being moved from one place to another and the eldest boy being pushed down the stairs is all we have to go on." Naru stated
"So no history from previous owners?" Monk asked
"We haven't contacted the previous owners yet as we don't have the contact details, we'll do that once we are there" Naru said "We'll leave tomorrow morning at 9am sharp, don't be late" he finished with a glare at Mai
Mai rolled her eyes "Don't look at me, I'll leave now and meet you guys there" she pushed herself off the wall, strolled up to the table grabbed a copy of the case details and tucked it into her pocket. When she turned to leave Masako spoke
"Mai… we were hoping to ask you some questions"
"Yeah and I'm hoping to win the lottery, fix my face and become a pop star but you don't always get what you want" Mai responded despite that she stood in place at the table. "You can ask me questions but I can't guarantee that I'll answer them all"
"How's your wound?" Ayako asked
"Fine" Mai said, in truth she hadn't even bothered to check when she'd woken up this morning, usually wounds would just heal themselves up quickly because of her latent powers. She hadn't had any to this bad an extent before but she couldn't feel any major pain so she assumed it was fine.
"Either way I'd like to change the bandage on it again" Ayako said
"It'll be fine" was all Mai said while staring blankly out the window, her eyes started to glaze over as if she was already bored of the conversation
"Are you coming back to work for SPR?" Mai turned her head so fast that she was surprised it didn't just snap off her neck.
"I'm sorry was that an official invitation?" Mai asked
Naru sighed "Are you or aren't you? I have a lot of paper work to fill out so need to know"
Mai could feel the vein in her head start to pulse "if you are asking if I'll come back to work as your secretary who you can push around and force to make you tea a thousand times a day then no" Mai paused "however I will assist on cases that I have an interest in. I'll make my own way there, I'll do what I like when I like and if you have a problem with that then I'll happily leave and pursue cases elsewhere solo." Mai finished, the whole group had turned to look at Naru at this point worried he would say no and Mai would disappear again, knowing the risk Naru simply turned and nodded. The group let out a breath of relief Monk was the next one to speak
"Mai where have you been for the past 3 years?"
"I told you last night I've been working"
"You decided to up and leave without telling any of us so you could go and work cases?" Monk asked. 'Uh oh' Mai thought she was going to have to be careful about what she said next considering how much attention to detail Monk would give.
"Yes. Since Naru had to go back to England and everyone was going their separate ways I figured I'd continue on my own" Mai finished
"What?! Where did you live? What about money? Or school for that matter? You didn't even graduate Mai" Monk asked again
Mai had had enough already "Look I did what I had to do" she said while standing up "It's in the past so let's just deal with the case. I'll leave tonight and meet you all there"
"Actually Mai I think it would be better if we all arrived together" Naru said
"Why's that?" Mai asked arms folded over her chest
"No offence Mai but you don't exactly scream rainbows and pixie dust anymore" Yasu chimed in
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" She asked narrowing her eyes
"It just means that given your…. appearance… it might look a bit dodgy if you turn up at night by yourself to inspect their house" Yasu finished
Mai huffed "Fine, I'll wait until morning and join you guys instead" it wasn't the first time she'd had to change plans because of her appearance and cases with kids never ended well with the mask so she'd probably have to make peace with being the jackass who wears sunglasses inside. "Is that all or can I go?" she asked
"We were planning on doing some research and discussing the case before tomorrow but feel free to do what you want" Naru responded. Mai sighed again she had been planning on leaving early, stopping by her old apartment to see what state it was in, heading to the case and then catching a few hours sleep since she still felt exhausted.
"Sure" was all she said, she grabbed her bag from the door and pulled her laptop out, since the SPR office was still in the same layout she decided to sit at her old desk rather than next to anyone at the table. She made her way to the kitchen to make herself some coffee, pulling a small flask of alcohol from her pocket she topped the coffee up, she never saw herself drinking alcohol at 10 in the morning but sometimes it was the only thing that took the edge off her nerves. The alcohol especially helped when she was around a lot of people, there was always the budding fear that he'd find her again, being around more people increased the risk. She made her way back to the desk and pulled out the information she'd found late last night.
"Mai could you bring us some tea?" Naru called from across the table
'The nerve!' Mai thought "No. But I'm sure you know where the kitchen is, I mean you are a genius so even after 3 years away you should still remember where the kitchen is" Mai finished. She didn't have to look over from the laptop screen to know that Naru was glaring at her.
8 Hours Later
Mai sighed and stretched she hadn't moved in the past 8 hours and it hadn't been a smart idea. All she'd been able to come up with was that the Adachi family had moved into the family house around 18 years ago, it was a small village that was surrounded by woodland and the house was brand new when they moved into it. Mai had plenty of theories but until they got to the house there wouldn't be much to go, judging from the mood of the rest of the room they were all thinking the same thing. Silently packing away her things she made her way to the door, turning around to check no one was watching she snuck out of the room with her bag. She pulled down her sunglasses and collar up and made her way to her old apartment.
General P.O.V
Monk looked up "any bets as to where she's off to?"
"Maybe there's some orphans that need false hope or puppies that need to be kicked" Yasu replied
"Woooow dude! Not cool, I don't think she's that bad" Monk replied
Yasu pushed his glasses up his nose "please if I didn't know any better I'd say she was a trained assassin with the way she dresses"
Masako let out a laugh "well I can't imagine that she has had a pleasant 3 years"
"Why would you say that Masako?" Ayako asked her
"Sometimes mediums can pick up certain auras that people emit, a bit like how you can feel if a spirit is holding a grudge etc normally you can't feel anything from people but on occasion when someone has gone through something whether it is happy or sad or fear you can feel it from then."
"So you pick something up from Mai?" Monk asked
"Yes, but it isn't a feeling, it's more like a haze"
"What do you mean?" Monk asked again
"It's almost like there is a smoke cloud around her. It's not a grudge but it's something that is stuck to her, clouding around her" Masako finished
"So you think something bad has happened to her?" Monk asked
"I don't know but she is a completely different person from who she was, people don't change that drastically without something interfering with them" Masako said
Mai P.O.V
Mai slowly made her way through the streets and decided to walk through the park that was close to her old apartment building, it had started raining lightly which help Mai blend in more. People were less likely to look at someone wearing sunglasses at 7 at night when they were too busy running for cover. She took her time walking through the park appreciating the smell of flowers that lingered and how the rain helped to cool her spinning head down. This was something she had avoided for the past two years but she needed to do this, to see the place where she use to live to return to everything she once knew. Even though her apartment had been vacant for the 3 years as soon as she'd gotten away from…him… she'd been sending money to keep the apartment in her name but didn't have the stomach to return to it until now.
She looked up at the building, it was the same standard as it had been in before, with shaky legs she climbed the stairs slowly. Her boots echoed loudly over the chipped and cracked paint, she stopped when she reached her door, the number 5 sat squint on the neglected door. Raising her hand up Mai straightened the number before clamping her hand onto the metal door handle, she suddenly heard a high pitched screamed. Without even flinching Mai closed her eyes. She knew that the scream belonged to her but it was from past her, this is what she had feared the most about coming back her the visions she would have to experience because of her PK.
'Suck it up Mai' she told herself 'it's in the past you can't change what's happened' with that thought she opened her eyes and pushed the door open, the wood creaked and groaned against her weight but opened to reveal the small, dark apartment. While Mai stepped into the hallway the first thing she noticed was the giant claw marks on the back of the door, she let her eyes trail from them to the other ones littering the walls along with several dried blood stains. Good to know no one ever thought to check on the place or clean it she thought while walking through to the living room. The place was very bare but what was left had been stranded in broken pieces. Her once loved coffee table was in two, cups lay shattered around it and the tea had left permanent stains in the rug.
She moved through to the cramped kitchen only to be hit by a rancid smell, she'd expected this given that the flat had been empty for 3 years, running to the window she heaved it open to let in some fresh air while she examined the rest of the rooms. She hadn't left much lying around her apartment when she had tried to leave, she knew it was coming so for safety she'd moved everything of importance to a storage facility and retrieved everything she needed 2 years ago. Not that she had much, everything she owned or cared about she now had in her bag, everything else had been chucked away or burnt for safety. The bathroom was the still the same except for the damp smell.
Mai's stomach heaved when she saw the state of the bedroom however, the door was completely ripped in two, her old quilt had been torn apart so white fluff littered the room, her vision blurred as she saw the leftover blood marks from her struggle. Everything started to spin as memories played before her eyes, the stale smell started to choke her while her eyes burned. She could feel it, his hands on her arms, panicking she kicked out and stumbled to the ground while clutching her head. Each flash came with a searing pain that cut like a knife through her skull, loud crashes filled the apartment while Mai tried to flee from her room, his hands tried to grab onto her and they struggled against each other. Mai managed to lunge out and get free of him but while she fled to the hallway a howl caught her attention and she was flung down the hallway. She felt claws rip into her arms and legs leaving trails of blood along the hallway, she fought against the invisible creature as best she could. Finally she reached the doorway, grabbing the china vase she brought it down over the things skull or at least what she hoped was its skull, scrambling up she made a break for it out of the apartment door and tried to run as fast as her legs could take her.
Reality came crashing back down on Mai and her vision turned back round to the peeling wallpaper across from her. She could feel her heart pounding against her rib cage, adrenaline rushed through her veins and her head was pulsing. Pulling herself up her vision was completely red which meant that her eyes had bled and bled badly, she could feel that her eyes were still bleeding and her right eye felt like it was on fire. On shaky legs she walked back through to the box shaped living room, she slid down the wall across from the door way and pulled her legs close up to her chest. Everything inside her told her to run but she knew that she had to let herself calm down and focus to help her deal with everything that had happened.
Mai sat there for a while trying to count her breathing, she kept her eyes closed in case anymore visions came to her. Anger started to bubble up in her chest and she could feel her PK spreading through her and out to the floor beneath her. Her already broken table shattered in splinters and the only picture frame that hung on the wall cracked and fell to the floor as quickly as the rage had come on she was replace with a numbing feeling that spread through her limbs. She hugged her legs into her chest and put her head down. The apartment had now started to fall into darkness with the fading daylight and the shadows started to make everything look eerie. Mai felt a cold breeze rush through but didn't bother looking up until she heard footsteps and a voice clear.
"So this is where you ran off too" the male voice spoke. Without responding Mai pushed herself up off the ground and lift her face to look straight at Naru.
Naru's P.O.V
After coming out from his office he saw that everyone was getting up to leave. "See you tomorrow Boss man" Yasu called from the door
"Wait, where is Mai away to?"
"No idea, she sulked off somewhere over an hour ago" Yasu said
"She'll come back when she's ready" Ayako chimed in. 'Yeah right' Naru thought, he waited for the group to leave before going to retrieve his jacket, he stuck his head into Lin's office.
"I'm away out for a bit" He said
"Chasing around after her isn't going to make her feel any more comfortable you know" Lin said without lifting his eyes from his laptop
"…I'm merely concerned with the health of one of our employees nothing more" Naru replied
Lin snorted in response "Alright you just keep lying to yourself then"
Naru responded by shutting the door and leaving the office block. He strolled effortlessly down the stairs and out onto the street, ignoring some of the looks that he got off women as he made his way down the street. He was aware that in the past 3 years he'd changed physically and that women were always throwing themselves at him but he'd had no interest in such trivial things like relationships, his work was the only thing he had any interest in and relationships were pointless. He continued to make his way through the streets, he decided to cut through the local park for quickness. He had a feeling that Mai might have been back at her old apartment, although he'd never been in the place himself he knew exactly where it was and how to get there. He knew that whatever had happened to her must have started there and if Ayako was correct in her abuse theory then as a victim she would retrace her steps to there. He'd felt guilty if he hadn't been so wrapped up with Genes body then maybe he'd have been able to help her, even prevent whatever happened to her happening. For some reason, it still hurt him to think that she had been in love with Gene despite the fact that he was dead, what was even more annoying was the discovery that Gene had decided not to part ways once his body had been found, stubborn was a trait that his twin clung to well.
He finally reached Mai's apartment block, the cold wind had started to stir up and the light drizzle left his untrimmed hair slightly damp, when he reached apartment number 5 he could see that it had been vacant for a while. Opening the door slowly he felt the rush of cold wind follow him into the apartment, he stepped in and shut the door as he turned around his eyes widened slightly, dark blood stains and claw marks were dotted all over the cramped hallway. It wasn't the type of place he could picture Mai living in, the walls were bare and it was devoid of anyway colourful he knew she'd been on her own for a while before she joined SPR but he expected her apartment to be filled with typical teenage girl stuff. He walked slowly down the hallway until he came to what he presumed use to be the living room, he could see the room was trashed with wooden splinters and glass lying all over the place. At the other side of the room sat Mai, all dressed in black and hunched over.
"So this is where you ran off to?" He asked. He watched slowly as she pulled herself up off the ground, her head hung low so her hair was covering her face, her muscles moved slowly as if they were supporting a huge weight, lifting her head up Naru almost jumped back but caught himself at the last minute. Trails of bright red blood were running down her white pasty skin, her once crimson eyes were bloodshot and tinted in red and the scar running down the right side of her face was the same shade of the blood. The fading light gave her face plenty of shade and if he hadn't known any better he would have thought she was a ghost.
"Yeah what of if" Mai replied, her eyes looked vacant and empty
"Well before you sneak off it would be nice to know where you are going, you know given that you are currently living in my spare room" Naru said. Mai just stared at him blankly and he could see that whatever had happened the past few hours had drained her, she went to step forward and swayed slightly. Stepping forward he put his hands on her shoulders, since he stood just under a foot taller than her it was easy enough. "Sit down while I go and find something to wipe that blood off of your face" surprisingly enough she sat back down on the floor while Naru left the room. He raided the kitchen but found nothing, he was lucky enough to find an old towel in the bath room and brought it back through to the living room. He sat down in front of Mai and reached up to wipe the blood off her face. Mai's hand shot up and snatched the towel from him, she leaned back against the wall and pressed her face into the towel. "Do your eyes always bleed when you use your PK?" Naru inquired
Moving the towel away from her face Mai looked down at it inspecting the blood "Not always, it's usually just with personal stuff or when I over use my PK" she answered focusing on the red dots that covered the once white towel.
'Personal stuff' Naru thought, he was right then, whatever had happened to her 3 years ago had obviously started in her apartment. He looked around the room while they sat across from each other in silence. "Mai.." Naru said
She turned her gaze onto him "Yes Naru?"
"What happened here?" He asked
Mai swallowed and let her eyes scan the room before returning back to him, she went to open her mouth but closed it and shook her head. "We all have a past Naru, some things are good and some things…not so much" she said while gesturing to the room, "you want to know what happened? Well tough, you picked up and left, you don't get to know every intimate detail of my life just because you are back." She paused while making direct eye contact at him "you have to earn back the trust you broke Naru before you get any information from me"
Mai's P.O.V
Silence landed between Mai and Naru, they were both sitting staring at each locked into a stale mate. It was a good thing that Mai was so exhausted and blood stained otherwise her face would have turned 7 different shades of red from the attention from Naru. Unfortunately all she felt was betrayal and exhaustion at the current moment, feeling vulnerable in front of anyone made Mai feel sick to her stomach, being on her own was her prerogative and she had managed to throw that out the window for the past 3 weeks. Naru's staring made her shift uncomfortably and she decided to break eye contact first "look I had some personal business to take care of and you caught me at a bad moment" she said
"You seem to have gotten yourself into a lot of bad moments recently" Naru remarked
Mai glared at him "I'd like to point out that I was doing just fine before you decided to pop up again"
"Fine? Really? This is what you call fine?" Naru shouted while gesturing to the room around him
"What's that suppose to mean?" Mai shouted back
"Oh I don't know, perhaps the fact that you are sulking around by yourself, in the middle of the night with several weapons, you don't have any sort of paper trail, not to mention the fact that you are covered in scars from god only knows what!" Naru shouted
Mai flinched and started to panic "YEAH well you left! What was I meant to do?! Just sit around and wait for you to come back?! Pine like some pathetic little girl over you and pray that you come back?! Well news flash for you Naru the world doesn't revolve around you and I did what I had to do to survive. If that means I work on cases by myself and sulk around at night then guess what? That's what I'm going to do!" She shouted back, both of them just stood looking at each other. Mai could see that her words had hit him hard but didn't care, she was broken and trying to sew herself back together in whatever way possible, discussing everything that had happened to her wasn't going to help at all.
"Look Naru you got what you wanted, I'm back here and I'm helping out SPR. Isn't that enough?" Mai asked
Naru being Naru just turned around, said "let's just go back to the office" and started to leave. 'Prick' Mai thought, despite still feely shaky and drained she went to shut the kitchen window, grabbed her bag and locked the door on the way out. It was still a far way off from feeling safe again but it was the only place that she could truly call her own for now. Her and Naru walked in silence back to the SPR apartment block, before her legs would have been barely able to keep up with him but now they could walk in pace with him.
Getting back to the apartment Naru disappeared in his office room and left Mai to stand alone in the living room. Mai went to the spare room and threw her bag across it, it landed with a crash next to the window, she then started to pace frantically. 'Is this what he wanted?' To let her get close to people she use to know before ripping her away from it again. Or was he hoping she'd drive herself crazy working on cases? Maybe he thought that by working with people she knew then she'd put herself in danger and end up dead? Mai couldn't be sure but he was always after something she knew that much. Mai had been held captive with him for a whole year and he was a master manipulator, whatever he wanted he got, she'd only been able to get away from him by pure luck. She could still feel his breath on her skin and voice in her ears 'Maiiii channnn' it whispered to her.
"Shut up! Shut up!" She shouted at the empty room around her
'Maii channn' the voice taunted her, the laugh to follow made Mai's hairs stand on end and a chill run up her spine. She wrapped her arms around her torso and remembered that she was covered in blood from earlier. She decided to hit the shower since it had been a while since she'd had a decent wash and a bathroom with proper water pressure had been a distant memory. Slipping into the bathroom she was met with more black tiles, she was surprised Naru's apartment hadn't slipped into a black hole with the way he decorated. Although she could now understand his obsession with the shade, it helped to make you feel invisible and comfortable at the same time.
Pulling her tank top up over her head she assessed the damage in the large square mirror above the sink. All that was left was an angry red line, it still stung but wasn't open anymore and that was all that mattered. She almost burst out laughing at her own reflection, her brown hair was tangled and frankly a complete mess, she had dried blood all over the bottom of her face and she was so pale and washed out she was surprised Naru hadn't tried to throw holy water over her or stab her with a wooden stake. She stepped into the warm water and let it try to sooth her now aching muscles, she stretched out and could see that she was all lean muscle and bone. The only other thing that accompanied her otherwise bland appearance were the scars that dotted over her body, some small and some bigger all from her time held in captivity with him. She promised herself that if she ever found him again she'd rip him limb from limb so no one else had to suffer at his hands. She was deep in thought when a knock came from the bathroom door.
"Mai, I've ordered us dinner it'll be here in about 20 minutes" Naru called through the bathroom door.
"Alright, I'll be out shortly" she replied, turning off the water she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself. She made it back into the spare bedroom and tipped her bag out onto the bed looking for something to put on. Her hair was dripping all over the place, while she rummaged through her stuff it was obvious that she desperately needed to wash things. There was a knock at the door and Naru strolled in. "Yes?" She asked turning around and standing up straight
Naru stood for a few seconds, turned a slightly red colour and turned his face away "I eh… thought you'd want to know that Ayako left some clothes for you in the dresser"
"Great, thanks" Mai said, she noticed that he was slightly red in the face "what's this? The great Naru who use to have to beat girls off with a stick is embarrassed by a girl in a towel?" Although Mai was fairly modest and the towel covered up everything she couldn't pass up the chance to piss Naru off some more.
Naru cleared his chest and said "trust me Mai I'm not embarrassed but you might want to put on some clothes since that towel leaves very little to the imagination"
Mai looked straight down and didn't realise that it was slightly more see through than she thought, she grabbed the closest thing to her which was a hair brush and launched it at him while screaming "then get the hell out of the room you pervert!" Naru smirked dodged the brush and made a quick exit.
Mai cursed him under her breath while making her way to the dresser, Ayako had left her several pairs of underwear and a few dresses along with plenty of black leggings and baggy t-shirts. Grabbing the closest top and leggings she shoved them on, she then attempted to do something with her hair which she threw up in a wet messy bun at the top of her head, 'that'll have to do' she thought while grabbing all the dirty clothes she had lying around. She was becoming slightly more use to Naru's apartment and made her way to the kitchen, "I'm assuming you have a washing machine? Or does Lin do all your cleaning as well?" Mai asked Naru who was dividing up take away food.
"It's over there" he said pointing behind him to one of the counters, Mai loaded up the washing machine and stuck it on. It would be good to have clean clothes without having to visit a laundry matt and sit waiting on them washing and drying.
…..
Mai and Naru sat in silence at either end of the dining room table, having eaten in silence, cleaned up in silence, Naru now sat reading a newspaper while Mai inspected her nails out of boredom. Every so often she'd look and catch Naru looking at her, "I can put my mask on if you'd prefer?" she ask him
He looked over the top of the newspaper "Pardon?"
"My scar, I can put my mask or sunglasses on if it makes you uncomfortable, since you seem to be looking over here an awful lot. I know it makes most people uneasy, so if you'd prefer I can cover it"
Naru went back to his paper "do whatever you feel like" Mai huffed and stood up from the table. She turned away and made her way to the huge glass doors that led onto the balcony, sliding it open she stepped out into the cold air, the city always looked beautiful at night and the lights dotted the skyline, she decided to sit outside and enjoy the night air for a while.
7.00 am the next day
Mai must have fallen asleep outside but she woke up lying in the bed in the spare room again, she assumed that Naru must have moved her in her unconscious state, she was surprised he didn't leave her to freeze outside all night. Mai was up and ready within minutes to leave for the case, her bag was packed and she clipped on her mask and then pulled on her helmet. She said very little when she left the apartment, as expected Naru and Lin were sitting in the base sorting out all the equipment, Yasu and Monk had arrived early to help them. Mai nodded at them on her way past them on the stairs and down to the garage, as soon as she saw her bike she felt herself perk up a bit, ridding on the roads with it always helped her clear her head and calmed her down. Jumping on she revved the engine and flew out of the garage, she sped along the roads almost twice faster than the limit, speeding around and dodging cars along the way made it even more fun.
10 am
Mai had arrived in the area long before the group had even left, she had decided to scope the place out and found that it was a village nestled in amongst the hills. Woods rolled on and on for miles around, despite this the houses and facilities that made up the place were all very high tech. She'd made her way to the local library to see if she could dig up some history of the area.
12:30pm
Mai sighed and gave up on her library research, there had been very little about the area surrounding the village and the only decent thing she'd dug up was that a lot of the villagers and houses had been descendants of the upperclassmen who use to rule this area in the Heian period but given that that was over a thousand years ago Mai felt it wasn't particularly relevant or useful. She had already parked at the house and walked into the village so she would be less obvious, making her way out of the library she cut across what she could only imagine were the local shops, given how fancy and modern the houses were around here it would be surprising if they owners actually went to the shops themselves or if they had the servants go instead. Making her way around the shops she pushed through the trees and bushes on her hike up to the house
By the time, she made it back to the house she could see the black SPR van and Ayako's car which must mean that everybody was here for the case. Far off behind Mai could see her beloved motorbike hiding underneath an overgrown pine tree, she made her way over to it and lifted up her bag from the back of it. She then proceeded to head inside the very standard house, unlike the other homes dotted around this part of land this one wasn't unnecessarily big which meant the family living inside were well off but not famous or insanely rich. Mai didn't even bother to ring the door bell or wait to be escorted, instead she let her PK enhance her hearing and followed the noise to where the group were currently setting up the equipment. The hallway was a large L shape that started off at the front door, went straight along and past the staircase and then turned off to reach the kitchen, to the right was a large living room and to the left a dining room. Continuing along the hall way Mai saw that there was a door under the stair case, she passed what looked like a library, turning the corner she could see that at the far end was the kitchen which lead outside no doubt and just before that was another room that she could hear the group banging around in.
She open the door to find the room in a chaotic mess, she tried not to laugh at how long it always took SPR to get ready for a case, with Ayako and Monk fighting each other, Yasu winding them up, Masako sitting refusing to do anything, John trying to fix the problem, Lin working on his laptop and Naru giving everyone daggers. She could feel the nostalgia.
"Nice of you to finally join us" Naru said, Mai shrugged and plopped herself down on the couch, she'd kept her sunglasses on all day since she was told that there were two young children in the house that she didn't want to freak out.
"Well since I apparently scare the shit out of everyone I thought it would be better to hang back and arrive later" Mai replied from her seat making a snide comment at Yasu
"Mai we didn't mean it like that" Monk started to say
"It's fine. I'm not stupid, there's a reason I do most of my work at night" Mai responded, she pulled out a book from her bag and opened it while letting the group continue on with set up. If Mai had been feeling generous she could have helped but she was too caught up in her own personal quest and frankly it was fun not having to do the scud work for once. Returning back to the book she'd found in the library she'd started to lose track of the number of spiritual and supernatural books she'd read but on the off chance that her captor found her again she wanted to be as prepared to fight him as she could be.
She felt the couch move as Monk threw himself onto it. "Done!" He said throwing his arms up dramatically, "what you reading there Kiddo?" he asked Mai responded by turning the book face in his direction "Ancient creatures and myths" he read "that sounds…fascinating"
"I like to be prepared for anything when working" Mai responded
"Really? If I recall getting you to read the case files was a chore" Yasu smirked across from them
"Yeah but have you read Naru's writing? Boooorrrrring" Mai exaggerated, Yasu just smiled
"So where were you actually before we got here?" he asked
"Always so perceptive Yasu aren't you? Since you asked I was away looking up some history of this house" – she reached down and pulled a thin file out of her bag – "this is what we already know, this is what I found out" she handed Yasu the piece of paper with all the information she could find earlier, before Yasu could respond there was a knock at the door and a slender woman stepped in
"sorry to bother you all but I thought it would be good for introductions since you'll be here for the next few days at least" The woman said while walking into the room, behind her were two small girls and an older teenage boy. The group stood up to introduce themselves but Mai stayed sitting, the mother seemed to be perfectly pleasant and all 4 of them shared the same bright blonde curly hair, the two young girls were about 2 years apart in age, Fumi being the older child and Aimi the youngest. While the introductions were going on Mai couldn't help but notice that the boy seemed strange, for some reason it put her back up and something seemed off.
"Mommy…Who's the lady in the sunglasses?" Aimi asked, her mum turned to look at Naru
"Miss Adachi this is my…associate M –"
"Miss Crimson you can call me Crimson" She said while reaching out for the mothers hand after shaking her hand Mai sidestepped around the mother to face Hiroki. He had a similar build to his mum but his eyes were light rather than dark and at the moment they were clouded over "and you must be Hiroki" she said while stretching out her hand. Hiroki shifted his gaze from the other side of the room to Mai and then to his mother
"Hiroki don't be rude, these are the people who are here to help" reluctantly he stuck his hand out, Mai could see a few faded bruises on his arm, not to mention the one that was currently stretched across his cheekbone. Mai closed her fingers around his palm and wrist that's when she felt it, it was underneath the boys skin but it was definitely there, a rippling hatred that was bubbling away. Slowly she pulled him in to her side so she could whisper in his ear
"I don't know who you are but you aren't Hiroki, would you like to tell me what you are doing here?" She asked. Hiroki leaned in close and Mai could feel his breath on her ear
"This doesn't concern you woman and I suggest you don't get in my way" suddenly his grip on Mai's arm tightened and he smirked, Mai saw it coming a split second before he threw his arm out with a scalpel blade in it. The scalpel swung down and Mai managed to dodge it by hopping back slightly, the blade still cut at her abdomen. On reflex Mai yanked his other arm out and then slammed it into his back while grabbing onto his collar.
"Hiroki what are you doing?! His mother shouted
"Get the girls out of the way" Monk said while Miss Adachi and Ayako grabbed one of them each.
"Who are you?" Mai asked again while pulling on the back of his collar to navigate him backwards. Instead of answering he laughed and swung the blade around him again, Mai let go of his other hand and grabbed the blade with her bare hand, turning his arm around she flipped him over her back and onto the ground. Landing straight onto his chest she put the blade straight up against his neck, she shifted her weight so that he could still breath but pushed down slightly on the blade to get his attention. His bright eyes were still dull which usually happens during a possession, "alright why don't you cut the crap and tell us who you are?" She asked "Let me remind you that you are in no position to argue" as a reminder she pressed the blade down slightly. She could hear his mother shouting in the background while Lin and Monk were trying to interfere with what she was doing but it was all white noise that she drowned out.
"You're all in my way" Hiroki spat before his eyes rolled back in his head and his body went limp, Mai took this chance to spring up off of him, holding onto his hand she reached out but couldn't feel the presence that was there earlier.
"Whatever that was it's gone for now" She said letting go of his hand and turning to the group, the mother flew to his side
"Oh my god, what happened? Is he alright?!" She said. Mai bent down beside her and reached over to put a hand on her shoulder
"He'll be fine, it might be a lot to take in but whatever is in your house did that to him"
"Whatever is in our house? What does that mean?" she currently had tears running down her cheeks and Mai could see that the girls were huddling next to each other in the background
"Mai" Naru said to her in a silent warning
"Miss Atachi, now isn't the right time to discuss this, Ayako is a doctor so she can check your son over to make sure he's alright and once everyone has calmed down we can discuss what just happened if you like" Mai said calmly. To be honest Miss Atachi was handling this much better than she expected, she'd just seen her son pull out a blade attempt to stab someone and then get his butt kicked. Ayako rushed over to examine him, Mai pulled back to let her in while Monk came up behind her
"Are you alright?" he asked
She turned to him slowly "Yeah I'm fine" she said, lucky she still had her sunglasses on, although they were custom made to fit on regardless of the situation.
"He's fine but just unconscious, there wasn't any damage done to him. The best thing to do would be to move him to his room and leave him to wake up by himself" Ayako said. Lin moved over and hoisted the teenager up onto one shoulder
"I'll show you where his room is" his mother spoke
"Miss Adachi, what is it your husband does?" Mai asked before she left with Lin and Ayako
"My…my husband? Oh he's an investment banker" she said before turning away
"Why are you asking that now?" Monk asked
"Because if his dad is an investment banker and his mom stays at home to look after the girls, then where did he get a surgery scalpel from?" she asked holding up the blade in front of Monk.
30 Minutes later…
Hiroki had been left upstairs in his bed to recover, his mom had listened to the explanation that Naru had decided to give since and Mai quotes 'you have no social skills when it comes to people so just stay silent'. She snorted, as if the king narcissist could give her a lecture on social skills. She'd taken the two girls through to the kitchen to cook something to take her mind off what happened and now the group sat in the base throwing around ideas while Mai sat silently at the end of the couch. Her abdomen cut had been nothing more than a graze so it was completely healed by now. They'd already run around putting up the cameras and taking the first temperature readings and nothing had come up unordinary.
"So we are obviously dealing with a vengeful spirit right?" Monk stated
"I'd say so yeah" Yasu agreed
"But what would be tying it to here? This house is brand new and they are the first family to live here" Ayako chimed in
While they continued with the discussion Mai took a moment to assess the room, everyone still looked the same as they had the other day but there had been a shift in the atmosphere, everyone seemed less tense and slightly more easy going. She stood up and moved over to the computer screens where Lin and Naru sat, saying nothing she scanned over the screens. There were several cameras place around the house and each camera showed that there was nothing eventful going on around the house.
Sighing Mai decided to make some coffee, she turned and went to the kitchen. Pulling out everything she needed to make herself something and also a kettle to make tea for the group she left the water to boil and looked out the patio windows. Outside the weather had lifted and sunshine was coming through the clouds, the mom and two girls were sitting outside. Opening the door Mai shouted out
"Miss Atachi, can I get you something to drink?"
"No thank you Miss Crimson we are quite alright" she said back, closing the door Mai turned back to the stove to retrieve her drinks. Mai went back to the base with all the drinks and went back to researching about the case. Her thoughts were interrupted by Monk
"Mai, you said the scalpel didn't belong to anyone in the house?"
"Yes I did" Mai answered
"Do you think it's important?" Monk asked
"Hmm not particularly but given that the only place he could have gotten it would have been from school it tells us that he'd been possessed for a few days" Mai finished
"It must be a strong spirit to be able to be in possession for that length of time" Monk finished
"Yes and no" Naru interrupted from his computer seat "it's either a strong spirit or a spirit that has a very strong grudge"
"Well grudges can push people to do ridiculous and moronic things" Mai said making direct contact at Naru. Turning away she shut down her laptop and lay back on the long, padded footstool, leaning her head against the wall at the back of her she felt herself being tugged into unconsciousness.
Dreamworld
Mai opened her eyes to find herself lying exactly where she was five seconds ago, sitting up she realised that this wasn't the same place. The whole world looked red and the walls were pulsing.
"Hey Gene?" She shouted. No reply "Gene! Are you there?" She shouted again still no reply. She moved off of her seat to examine the walls, she touched it and brought her hand back only to be welcomed by blood. 'Ewww' she thought 'well if they were going for dramatic then they certainly got it right'. Cautiously Mai walked through the door only to be brought to a single long hallway, it looked like one of those illusions that went on forever and ever. Mai started to walk down the hallway, slowly she could hear her breath coming in and out, after a few minutes she thought she heard foot steps behind her but turning around there was no one there. Again she continued down the hallway and the footsteps echoed and again she turned around to be faced by nothing. Mai started to panic, her heart was pounding and she could feel beads of sweat rolling down her face. Turning around she started to run, again the footsteps behind her continued, faster and faster she ran, not willing herself to turn around again. She kept going until she eventually reached the end of the hallway, throwing herself through the door that was there she landed hard on the other side.
Slowly she picked herself up off the ground and dusted herself off, the door she came through had disappeared and in its place stood an old stone wall. Looking around Mai could see she now stood in an old ballroom, one that kings and queens would have thrown feasts in. Tall grey pillars had pale material draped around them and on the other side there were glass windows running the whole way along, slowly she made her way to the middle of the room, the moonlight pierced through the darkness and cast shadows all over the room. At the top end of the room there were a small set of stairs that led up to a grand throne, the throne was faced away from Mai but she made her way up to it. Gently she walked around to the other side of the throne and the sight she was met with made her scream.
Sitting in the seat was Mai but this Mai was broken, her hair was a mess and matted, she was skin and bones, her nails were broken and bleeding, her torso had been cracked open like a walnut and her eyes were gone, replaced by black holes. Looking down Mai realised that the white dress that was on the dead Mai in the throne was now also on her.
She started to panic "GENE, if you have anything to do with this I'll kill you! Seriously this isn't funny!" turning she flew down the steps and along the room, that's when she heard it… the laugh that haunted her dreams… the laugh that chased her no matter how far she ran…his laugh…
She swallowed before rotating around. She felt the colour completely drain out of her face and her breath caught in her throat. About 10 feet away from her stood the man she'd spent 2 years trying to run away from. He was gorgeous, with a tall and lean structure, chiselled jawline, locks of dark brown hair that made you want to run your hands through them and eyes you could drown in… that is if you weren't looking hard enough but Mai had, she knew that those eyes were empty and soulless, there was nothing there except for pure evil.
"This…this is possible" she whispered 'he couldn't be here, if he showed up it was always in memories but this was different' she thought
"I did always say I'd find you again" Mai shrunk back as he spoke
"Why are you here, Damien?" she asked knowing full well she wouldn't like the answer
Taking a few steps forward Mai could see that he was wearing a black tailored suit, it made his skin look even paler, "I missed you" he said opening his arms up as if he was gesturing her to hug him.
"Bullshit!" Mai spat "How did you find me and what do you want?!"
"Now now Mai, you might want to calm down." He said while crossing the space between them. He was right up to Mai's face and she could feel her heart pounding against her chest. Reaching out he put his hand through part of her hair "it hurts me when you accuse me of lying about my intentions you know"
"Let go of me" Mai said through barred teeth. Smirking Damien tightened his grip on her head and pull her face up to be in line with his
"These two years away have made you very feisty, haven't they?" he asked, Mai could see the dark centre of his eyes and shivered at the emptiness they held.
"I said let me go!" she shouted at him, slowly Damien let go of her hair and dropped his hand "if there is nothing you want then I'm leaving" she said and turned to walk away
"Mai…I wouldn't do that if I were you" he said
"Why is that?"
"Because even though I don't know your location I can easily find out where you are and then you're little friends won't be safe anymore" he said. This forced Mai to turn back around
"Fine. What exactly are you after?" she asked
"Come and dance with me Mai" he said the next thing she knew he'd pulled her into a slow waltz, she could feel his hand on the small of her back pulling her closer to him. Mai forced herself to look up at him, she couldn't deny that he was unbelievably attractive but that's what made him the perfect predator. The contact from him made her skin crawl and everything inside her was screaming to run away but if he had found her then she was going to have to put up a fight against him, she tried to reach for her PK but was stopped. "I thought you would have learnt by now that in this plane you can't use your powers Mai" he said with a twisted smile "plus you know you can never get rid of me, I taught you everything you know"
Mai smirked "I did it once, I can do it again"
Suddenly Damien let out a laugh "Ah yes your little stunt did prove rather productive, you seem to forget that and I quote using your own words that you didn't have anything left to live for then – he spun her out and brought her back to him again – but now well you wouldn't want your little friends to get hurt would you?" he asked
"You wouldn't" Mai said
"Do you really have to ask that?" he replied. They continued to slowly step around the hall in silence while Mai considered her options, even if she didn't have all her powers here the chances were she was astral projecting and if she could focus on getting back to her body then she could stop this conversation. Unfortunately that meant she had to try and get away from him and that was easier said than done. 'Gene if you can hear me I'd really appreciate some help right now' she thought. Damien and Mai had slowed down and were now swaying, Mai could feel his hands on her hips and she had her arms around his neck. "You know I've missed you these past 2 years Mai" he said looking straight into her eyes, fighting the urge to turn around and throw up Mai leaned in closer to him
"Really?" She asked, looking him straight in the eyes she lifted herself up onto her toes, their faces were so close she could feel his breath on hers
"Really" he whispered before leaning in to touch her lips with his. Mai felt her pulse race and she could taste how sweet his lips were, sighing she pushed herself further into him and he tightened his grip on her… Crunch… Mai clamped down hard on his lip until she could taste blood. Damien yanked his head back "You little- "but before he could finish Mai swung her head forward and collided with his, he doubled over and Mai took this opportunity to bring her knee up into his chest. While he sputtered, and fell over Mai spun on her heel and flew down the room to the door she'd came out of as her hand reached around the door handle she was yanked backwards by her hair. Screaming she tried to pull away, "You bitch, do you think you can get away from me?!" Damien shouted
"I've done it before I'll do it again! LET GO OF ME!" She screamed back at him. His hand came around to reach across her neck and she sunk her teeth into his arm, shouting and reeling back he let go of her and Mai ran from him. Yanking the door open she fled down the corridor and swung back into the living room where her unconscious self was lying. She grabbed her shoulders and started to shake her "MAI WAKE UP" "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WAKE UP NOW" she yelled while violently shaking her.
Naru's P.O.V
While the group had been busy organising and trying to make sense of the information they had gotten from the Adachi's they'd noticed Mai had fallen asleep.
"Looks like someone's tired" Monk said
"Hey maybe we should draw a moustache or something on her face" Yasu piped in while waving a pen around
"HA, on your head be it! I'm rather found of living" Monk replied
"Boo, you are no fun Monk" Yasu pouted "Should I wake her up?"
"No let her sleep. She's probably still recovering from her wound and I can't imagine she rests well" Ayako chimed in Monk nodded in response
"Speaking of rest what time is it?" he asked
"It's about 10pm" Yasu replied
"Well I think we should call it a day" Monk said
Naru looked over in response "yes, all of you head to bed and get some rest" the group slowly shuffled off and cleared out the room. "Lin why don't you go as well, I'll take the first shift with the cameras"
Lin nodded then paused once he saw Mai "What about Mai?"
Naru turned to see the sleeping girl "I'll leave her to sleep or if she wakes up I'll tell her she can go join the other women." Lin looking satisfied with this answer nodded and left the base, Naru turned around to focus on his laptop while keeping an eye on the monitor screens
2 hours later
Naru was deep in thought when he heard a noise, turning around he saw Mai had managed to slide down completely so she was lying flat on her back on the foot stool. Her hair was all over the place and her eye lids were twitching, that's when Naru realised she must have been dreaming, she was mumbling and twitching while she slept. Naru decided the kind thing to do would be to wake her up and send her to sleep in a proper bed, he also was seeking some revenge after she dropped a case file on his face in the early hours of the morning. Just as he was about to attempt to wake her up she started mumbling again "Gene…" she said. Naru froze, so it was true his idiot of a brother was back and harassing her again… on the other hand maybe he was showing Mai something useful about the case, Naru hovered next to Mai waiting to see if she would say anything else like cloak work she started to mumble again "where…" she started to toss and turn "No" she said "Damien no" and then she screamed. Naru took this opportunity to grab onto her shoulders
"Mai, wake up" he said to her
"No, let me go" she continued to mumble, Naru shook her harder and noticed that she'd started to cry. "Leave them alone" she shouted, her back arched and she screamed again "LET ME GO" Naru grabbed her and shouted
"MAI WAKE UP!"
Mai's P.O.V
Mai opened her eyes to see her face had been replaced with Naru's, she felt his hands on her shoulders and was over whelmed with relief, before thinking about what she was doing she shot up and grabbed onto him, wrapping her arms around his torso and burring her head in his chest. She was shaking violently and couldn't stop herself from crying, she needed some source of comfort and unfortunately Naru was the closet she could get.
Naru's P.O.V
Naru almost fell over when he felt Mai grabbed onto him, he could feel that she was shaking violently and her shoulders were moving up and down suggesting that she was sobbing, slowly he put his arms around her and said nothing. She felt small and thin in his grasp. After a few minutes he felt her pull away slightly, she used the sleeve of her jacket to wipe her face while she shifted back into her seat "um…sorry…" she said sheepishly she hid her face behind her hair and sat slumped forward on the footstool. Naru couldn't help but think that she looked like the old Mai he once knew slightly naïve and innocent, he took this opportunity to sit down next to her.
"Mai…" he started to say. Turning her head he could see that her eyes were red and bloodshot from the crying, her scar ran through her right eye and looked more like a beauty mark than a defect, her eyes were still hazel but had hues of red running through them, "what did you see?" he asked her
Mai's P.O.V
She was still shaking and trying to get over her embarrassment of practically jumping Naru, her heart was pounding in her chest and she could feel the adrenaline running through her veins that made her whole body jumpy. "What did you see?" Naru asked in a whisper, turning to look at him Mai got caught up in the concern in his dark eyes, she'd only ever seen that look once before on the Urado case. She wanted to hug him again to feel the warmth of his arms around her, she felt her face flood with heat and turned her head away. "Mai.." he said again how many times had she dreamed of having him look at her like that, frustrated she groaned while running a hand over her face and through her hair.
"It's…complicated Naru" she said turning to look at him again
"I think I can keep up" Naru said smirking
Mai narrowed her eyes, sighing again she turned her head away from him and focused on the computer screens "it's someone from my past, someone who I thought I'd left behind"
Naru folded his arms across his chest "was it a memory?" he asked
"No" Mai said "it was…I think it was astral projection"
"Was Gene there?" he asked, Mai knew he was going to ask that, she hated to see that even after his death Gene was still hanging around and keeping the wounds open rather than moving on and letting them heal
"No he wasn't" Mai said, she could see the disappointment in Naru's eyes "I tried to shout for him but he didn't appear, I think there was a barrier preventing him from reaching me. It's not uncommon in astral projection, especially if someone is manipulating the plane and they are powerful" Mai finished
Naru nodded in agreement, of course this was the type of thing that Naru was an expert on, you don't write hundreds of books and not have a clue about the subject they are on. Mai stood up and started to pace, if Damien could reach her through her astral projection then it meant that he would harm her and the others, however if he knew exactly where she was then he'd just turn up himself so that meant he was still unsure of the location. This gave Mai the edge, if her and the group could solve this case and move on as quickly as possible then they'd be able to jump ahead of him. Mai was so caught up in her thought process that she didn't even notice that Naru had moved from the seat, she felt his hand on her shoulder, "what are you running from Mai?" he asked her
Mai stopped to face him "it's not a what, it's a who" she said, she didn't want to get any of them involved, dealing with these problems along was her prerogative but if they were in extreme danger and knowing Damien they were, then it would be extremely unkind to at least warn them.
"Who's after you Mai?" Naru asked, he wasn't one to let an issue go and now Mai felt her blood start to boil, she'd dealt with this for 3 years just fine
"Please don't act like you care" she said shrugging his hand off of her shoulder
"You know that I care" Naru said
"Really?! Cause last time I checked you decided to up and leave for England and cut ties with us. That doesn't exactly show a lot of caring does it Naru?" she said her voice was starting to get loud and she could feel the storm starting to stir between the two of them, this was going to end in a screaming match and it would not end pleasantly
"Excuse me?! I'm sorry but in case you've forgotten I had to return to England to bury my dead brother" Naru shouted
"I'm not a moron Naru of course you had to return to do that, did you ever think that maybe as your friends that we wanted to come as well to show our support? That we understand or could relate to what it's like losing a family member and wanted to help you? Did that even cross your mind?" Mai shouted back
Naru's eyes darkened slightly "could you be any more self centred?" he asked
"Me…? Me self-centred?! That's rich coming from you! Clearly the air up on that high horse of yours is thin cause you are obviously delusional! Me, the group, all of us would have been there for you if you'd just given us the chance!" she shouted
"Don't kid yourself Mai, you only wanted to be there cause you were in love with Gene!" He finished, Mai could see the vein pulsing in his neck, his pupils dilating and his chest was heaving, she knew that the subject of Gene always riled him up.
"OF COURSE!" she shouted "That's always what it comes down to isn't it Naru? It's always about Gene, maybe if you could just admit that you were jealous then maybe you'd be able to move on!" Mai knew that this hit him hard
"Jealous? And why an earth would I be jealous of my idiotic brother? While he was busy fooling around and acting like a child I was out getting myself a decent education. Not to mention the fact that he had to go off galivanting and get himself killed! Did he even bother to think about how his trips would affect the rest of us? Of course he didn't!" Naru yelled
There it was Mai thought, this is always what it came down too, Gene. She could feel her temper reaching its limits and she was more than tempted to throw Naru through the lovely glass window across from her. "Hey you might be angry but he didn't exactly plan to go and get killed now did he?"
"Obviously not! But then again he never planned anything, he flounced around life like he does in death, doing whatever he damn well pleases without any consideration to the rest of us!" Naru shouted back
Mai could hear a few footsteps outside the door, obviously their fight had woken up more than one person, 'too late to watch our voice levels' she thought. "Oh please, you know the only reason he's still here is because obviously he cares about you"
"Don't patronise me. He's here because he couldn't move on and we all know the reason for that" Naru said
"What the hell is that meant to mean?!" Mai questioned, she knew exactly where this was going and if they weren't careful they were going to have to resort to physical fighting in a minute
"You know exactly what that means"
"I really don't, why don't you enlighten me? Since making everyone feel like idiots is what you do best"
"Well it wouldn't be so easy if you'd at least educated yourself"
"Yeah well some of us have more important things to do than spend years writing stupid books!" Mai yelled, "so go on then, since you clearly know everything why don't you tell me why your brother is here?"
"You really have no idea?" Naru asked
"NO! FOR GOD SAKES! That's what I've been saying for the last 20 freaking minutes!" Mai growled
"OH COME ON! It's so obvious Mai, even someone with your intellectual abilities should be able to tell"
"THAT'S IT" Mai screamed, she slammed her foot down and straight through the wooden coffee table, blatantly ignoring the crash she had to refrain from punch Naru "Tell me now or I swear the next thing I break will be your legs!"
Naru smirked which made Mai start to see spots of rage "Good to know your ability to control yourself is still the same as a toddler"
"Naru" Mai growled under her breath
"FINE! My idiotic brother is obviously still here because you are in love with him"
"….." there was a pause of silence while the information fell between them like a layer of dust
Mai broke this with an explosion of rage "ARE. YOU. SERIOUS?!"
"YOU ARE HONESTLY THE MOST SENSELESS PERSON I KNOW" She screamed storming out of the room, she turned around to slam the door in his face "YOU NARSISSTIC, BIG HEADED, TEA DRINKING, MORON!" the door frame rattled and left the echoing sound, in the hallway she could see Lin, Ayako and Monk standing in their pyjamas watching her
"Everything alright?" Monk asked sheepishly
Mai whipped her head up, eyes narrow and face red "YES! Everything is fantastic" She took a few steps forward "you can tell your boss where he can shove his jobs" she said while pointing to Lin
Slamming herself past them Monk shouted after her "where are you going?"
"AWAY TO SLAM SOME SENSE INTO MYSELF SINCE I DON'T HAVE NEURONS THAT FIRE APPARENTLY!" she yelled from her way through the door