Chapter 11

Mai's breathing was slow and even and her face was smooth and relaxed. She looked peaceful as she rested on the couch, no one could have guessed at the turmoil she was in.

"Mai, I'm here, its ok," the girl shivered unwilling to look up at where the voice was coming from. She didn't want to know what he'd look like now. Would he even still have his head? It was all her fault, if she'd just done something instead of standing around or hiding like a damn damsel in distress. That was all she ever seemed to be these days, waiting for someone to come along and help her. What happened to the independency she had built up over the years? It had gone as soon as she'd met SPR.

Snivelling Mai wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and stood up shakily. She was going to be a brave girl! She was sixteen and a fully capable adult. So right now she was going to raise her head and make sure that Gene was alright. Breathing deeply Mai slowly raised her head and stared at his chest. Clean black clothes, no blood stains. Collar buttoned neck intact. Mouth twisted in sad smile, concern in his eyes.

With a sigh of relief Mai felt new tears come to her eyes. Gene was fine. But how? How was that possible?

"Mai," his voice was soft as he gazed down at her, "There's scene's you have to see and it might be hard to bear," he looked sad, so sorrowful. "There's so much to be explained,"

Bou-san sat at the library desk with annoyance staring at the multitude of books surrounding them in longs rows along the shelf. As soon as Naru had called the librarian to open up the facility he had disappeared off somewhere and the monk had not been quick enough to keep up and had promptly lost his boss.

He stared around him, his back to open space and suppressed the shiver running down the spine. He didn't know what it was but he felt as if something was watching him. Something evil. Closing his eyes he focused on his surroundings.

It was still only the first day of their investigation and so much had already happened, especially to Mai. It was normal for her to be targeted out by ghosts but this was unusual. Never had Mai been so haunted and on the first day too. Shaking his head the monk sighed and stood up. He might as well try to find Naru now, if all he was going to do was sit alone with his thoughts.

He was so tired! But everything seemed to be bugging him, so many thoughts and questions ran through his head.

He couldn't help but wonder at him and Ayako exorcising Mai. He knew he should be glad that his friend was still in one piece but really her spirit should have vanished for at least a few days if not forever. He supposed that since her spirit was still connected to her living body it had weakened the effects but something wasn't right…

Frowning he broke off from his daze as he saw a glowing light coming from behind a bookcase to his left. Bracing himself he saw Naru scanning through old newspapers on a computer and wondered what the kid was up to now, if this was what he did everytime he disappeared then that was the last time he was following him.

Walking up and leaning over his shoulder Bou-san looked at the main headline on the front page dating back to 1966. TRAIN TUNNEL COLLAPSE KILLS EVERYONE ON BOARD

"The tunnel collapsed?" Bou-san murmured, "But that doesn't make any sense. If the tunnel collapsed, sure you'd have a few spirits but not like the murderous one after Mai," Bou-san frowned as something suspicious occurred to him, "A cover-up?"

Naru pursed his lips considering, "Perhaps but if you look at the photograph taken it shows that it's not any normal cover-up,"

Naru quickly scrolled down to the next page showing the tunnel and to the left of it was a large lake. There was a gap built in between the tunnel as it emerged from beneath the ground to above it. Only the tunnel above the ground had collapsed and if Takigawa strained his eyes he could faintly make out a carriage from beneath the rubble.

Naru groaned slightly, "It makes no sense and until Mai wakes up and fills us in on the details we can only presume part of the story,"

Bou-san yawned, "So it was a complete waste of time coming here then," the monk stated as he glanced at his watch wanting nothing more than to go to bed.

"I wouldn't say that," Naru smirked as he glanced up at the monk, "As I was scrolling back through the years while you were catching up to me I noticed a wedding congratulations not soon after the crash," Naru paused as he flicked onto another screen and scrolled down through a list of names, "Just as I thought," he muttered to himself.

Bou-san tried to ignore the irritation he felt; now he knew why Mai was always trying to hit him. "What?"

"I think I can make a hypothesis as to why the ghost is attacking Mai. The marriage was between one Mori-san and Taniyama-san and soon after they had a son, Akio,"

"Right, what has this got to do with Mai-chan?" Takigawa sighed exasperatedly.

"If my guess is right then Akio is Mai's deceased father and his mother, Mori Ai was the younger sister of one Mori Akihiko, who was one of the deceased in the train crash. I happened to look to the more recent papers a couple of years ago. Did Mai ever say how her parents died?" Naru paused as he waited for the monk to reply.

Bou-san thought hard, he remembered her saying her parents were dead but she never specified how they died, he shook his head.

"Well Taniyama Akio and his wife Haruna died in the train crash on the sister rail to the one we're investigating now. The small train fell off the tracks; Mai's parents along with her grandparents who were also on the train were the only ones to die, everyone else escaped with minor injuries,"

"The creatures being going after her family and it's trying to get her now. But the question is why?" Bou-san frowned worriedly thinking of Mai sleeping peacefully on the couch.

"No," Naru stated, "The question is what did Mori Akihiko do on the train of the day of the crash?"

Mai stared around her as Gene led her along the apartments telling her not to look through the glass window and to focus only on him. Mai listened to him, only after she'd glanced through and turned her head away soon after, avoiding the eyes of the lifeless girl staring at her with a gunshot hole in her head.

She buried her head into Gene's arms as she tried to avoid looking at the floor where she was sure she'd see something like blood coming out from underneath the doorways.

Gene stared down at her sadly before he led her on, regretting about what he was going to have to show her and wondered if she'd be the same afterwards.

Sorry it's been around two months now since this has been updated.

Admittedly I've been avoiding this fic for a while simply because I had no clue how to write this chapter. But thanks to Hana-bean she helped me sort it out so this chapter was dedicated to you bean-chan. lol

well I've got the plot back nicely in my head so hopefully more updates to come sooner than formerly expected