Well hello everyone, all I can say in my defence is that I do not have the proper time anymore to write my fanfictions they way I want to and I found this chapter already half written from before September.

Dedicated to Funhause64, who seemed to really want another chapter, sorry for the very very long months of silence

The Story So Far:

Mai has a dream that causes her to get flash blindness in the real world. Then SPR are hired by Mr Fujioka to solve a case to do with a train line, the strange thing is Mai's been having dreams before the case even began! Now, on only the first day, Mai is already stuck in the dream world, being haunted by what appears to be a psychotic ghost who has been hunting down her family. Frustrated at Mai's comatose state, Naru and Takigawa go the the local library where they find a series of old newspapers showing the train, that Tamaki was on, buried under a pile of rubble. There they connect the dots that Akihiko, the conductor on that train, was Mai's great uncle. Returning to base, the gang are waiting around for Mai, who has been having some very vivid dreams of a massacre on the train journey, reshowing the actions that Tamaki took back in the 1960s. Only this time Tamaki is chasing after her trying to get her. Gene shows Mai a flashback of the day her parents died and she discovers that they were murdered...

Now

Chapter 13

Mai paused in the middle of her account, trying to get a grip on the people surrounding her and the feel of the general atmosphere in the room they were using as a base. It irked her knowing that she couldn't see her fellow workmates surrounding her despite her being able to see in her dreams. If this was what it was going to be like she considered actually staying asleep until her eyes were fully healed, if they would ever do that.

What was even more confusing was why her body in reality had taken the hit for her body in her dream walking. If she had been blinded in her dreams then surely it should be her dream self suffering. It was just soo frustrating! Her fists clenched slightly at being even more useless than she usually was. No one else seemed to have these problems, it was always poor helpless little Mai who got the rough end of the stick.

"We already figured out that Mori Akihiko was your great-uncle," Naru sat opposite her, or she assumed he was opposite her because it was the direction of his voice, calmly digesting what he had been told, "But from what you've said he was the inspector and knew the ghost, Tamaki, who killed everyone on the train, and presumably vowed vengeance,"

"So was the tunnel collapse a cover-up?" Bou-san glanced slightly at Mai, "It would explain a lot. If it was the last run of the steam train and had gained a lot of publicity then perhaps it would have been better to let it end with the tunnel instead of the media taking pictures of the massacre inside,"

Naru digested the monk's statement, but while reasonable there were too many holes on it, also the monk just seemed to be obsessed with the idea of a cover-up, the English boy nearly face palmed for a number of reasons. First of all, if it had been a cover-up the means to collapse the tunnel would have had already have had to be in place, meaning they knew the massacre would happen. Besides nothing would have been gained from killing anyone on the train, from reading the newspaper Naru knew that no one influential had been on it, just ordinary civilians. Although Mai had mentioned something…

"Mai," the girl jerked her head up towards him, her eyes focusing on his whereabouts, "You said Tamaki wouldn't let his bags be checked when asked, and he was delivering them to a location for a gang?" If it was what he thought it was, then maybe just maybe he had found the true reason for the tunnel collapse, he glanced at Lin who was obviously aware of what he was thinking.

"It's all together possible Naru," he paused typing on his laptop to consider it, "It would explain the destruction … but not why he murdered everyone on the train beforehand. But this is working too much on hypothesis to be able to use it for the case just yet," Lin began typing again ignoring the puzzled looks the rest of the team were directing towards him as he remained as vague as possible. Mai still sat on the couch that she had previously been lying on and had been listening intently to the brief exchange, finding that she was able to follow it, surprisingly. Maybe not being caught up on reading peoples' facial expressions she could actually realise what they were up to.

"He said he owed the gang a debt," Mai interrupted quickly surprisingly everyone else at being able to catch onto their train of thought, an inner part of her smirked thinking she wasn't the one for once who was being stupid, "And before the train departed he waved at a man on the platform," the girl thought quickly, but what was the debt owed? What could he have possibly done to end up paying for it by eventually blowing himself and everyone else up? She rubbed at her head, already tired despite having slept most of the day away, but it was very late, in the early hours of the morning. Plus in a few hours they would only be on their second day. The second day, she thought bitterly, and so much has already happened.

"Naru, Gene said to check the passenger count on the trains," Mai had a jolt as she remembered what the Davis twin had said, "He didn't say why, just that it was important. There was something else too…" Mai broke off, desperately trying to remember what had been said, everything had been so rushed, she hadn't been paying proper attention, "There was something about being attached to an object or something or other," she shook her head slightly, and could feel the exasperated gazes of Lin and Naru staring at her, but held back her retort.

"Right guys, it's late," Naru stood up glancing out the window, "I want you all to do one final check of the station and cameras, it would seem that Mr Fujioka forgot to tell us that soon there will be a a new public journey on an old steam engine. It's my guess that the journey is going to be a lot more eventful that past ones,"

Naru had finally allowed them some sleep and the team returned to the hotel with the exception of Mai, despite the heaviness of her eyelids she knew that sleep would be impossible for her at the moment, especially when she knew what was waiting for her when she did shut her eyes. Unwillingly the images from the train journey came to the front of her mind and she felt the pen in her hand shake due to her own trembling. Those people… all that blood…

"Mai," Snapping out of her bloody morbid thoughts she felt her mood plummet even further. Great! Just what she needed, the narcissist to annoy her even further. He always came at the most opportune moments, just when she was at her lowest, "I told you to leave with everyone else and get some sleep," Yep he sounded slightly peeved. Refusing to turn and meet the stormy blue eyes of her boss even though she still wouldn't be able to see them, Mai kept her head down and focused on her pen and diary, hoping for all things holy that he would just leave her be for once. She did the same for him when he felt the need for social reclusion. Common courtesy and all that.

She heard his soft footsteps hitting against the tiled floor as he moved closer to her and with a sigh she softly shut her book and laid down her pen, "I'm not tired Naru," that was obviously a lie, she had to muffle a yawn to get that sentence out of her mouth, if he caught one moment of weakness though he'd send her packing back to the hotel, not what she wanted.

There was silence for a couple of minutes, only disturbed by the sound of her boss sitting down beside her, and Mai couldn't help but fidget, what did he want? Once again frustration built up inside her, why couldn't he just leave me alone? She thought furiously, wishing he could butt his nose out just this once.

"You shouldn't keep it all bottled up inside Mai, it's not good for you," What was he doing? It sounded like he was trying to give her advice on… well not keeping everything to herself. Unable to help herself she snorted rudely at what seemed to be irony to her. It also had her a little freaked out, Naru tended to ignore emotions, that was one thing she had learned about him.

"That's rich coming from you Naru, the one person in this entire company who doesn't have a clue how to share things with others and at the best of times is emotionally stumped," shrilly Mai stopped before she went any further, already realising that her voice had given away her 'calm' facade, oh crap! He is soo going to kill me. Taking a breath, she figured if she was already going to hell… "What gives you the right to give me advice, I'm fine, I've already told everyone that!"

"I imagine, finding that your parents and grandparents dying not of natural causes but of having been murdered may be hard for you to deal with. Disconcerting, it makes you angry, helpless that you could do nothing, furious and thinking of revenge even though you have no way of hurting the ghost in the first place. You, Mai, are as open as a book, which is why I know the moment we have enough information to exorcise it you're going to run off and disappear to deal with it yourself," frustration laced his tone this time, and that was truly what he was feeling as he stared down at his assistant. She tried to act tough, he supposed having to practically fend for yourself did that to you but this wasn't just a team.

Mai stiffened in her seat, wondering how to get herself out of this one. Was she really that predictable? But this was her family, not just some randomer this time. This. Was. Personal. And who was he to speak to her in such a critical tone, "I learned from the best. After all, what has to do with the family stays in the family. Is that not what you said to me when we found Gene by the lake, Naru," dear god, Mai paused, I sound like a bitch and a vengeful one at that. The scary part was a small part of her liked being able to express what she thought, even the bad parts, instead of being her usual sweet polite self. "I will get rid of Tamaki for killing my family, maybe I'm not meant to do it entirely by myself but I will not be cut out of this investigation like you planned with Lin, I heard you discussing it earlier, and even if I leave the train station, the ghost will still find me. So don't even think of sending me away, my sight may be gone but my hearing is just as good, and what you were trying to do is an insult to me and my family," letting out a sigh she thought of the major walk out she could have done at the end of that. Damn flash blindness. Damn not being able to see Naru's face too.

She heard the creak of the leather as he got out of his seat and nearly flinched as she felt his cool breath tingling against her neck, "This isn't you speaking Mai, you're tired, you've seen endless horrific images and it's only been the first day. In parts I understand what you're feeling right now and no the anger never goes away," his hand clamped onto her shoulder tightly, "But then you meet people who make it better… numb the pain, you should have more trust in all of us here Mai, you should know by now not to keep your feelings clamped down. We care and you made everyone worried tonight because you're trying to act like I do," his hand released her shoulder and the light breathing that had been sending shivers down her back vanished as he straightened up and backed off. "And this case had to do with everyone Mai, because we are family, was that not your reply to me?"

Mai froze unsurely, was that really Naru? He sounded so different, more caring. In fact if it weren't that Gene was dead she would have thought it was Naru's twin she had just been talking to.

Why did Naru always have to sound so right all the time and make her feel like a chastised little school girl. There was what, about a year's difference between them, but then a year didn't make up the difference between IQ levels.

She knew that she was making everyone worried about her, hell all they wanted was the old Mai back, but she was gone. That girl had lived in peaceful obliviousness to the monster that had been killing off her family. Right now she felt incredibly bitter, towards Tamaki and Akihiko. If what Naruto believed was right, and her great uncle had done something to bring Tamaki's wrath down on his own family. Tamaki obviously haunted the train, train station or just the rail lines but why wasn't there hide or hair of the train conductor? Why wasn't Akihiko wandering around like Tamaki? Speaking of which, why was the only time that she had seen him was in a flash back? There were so many questions and so many answers to be had, but that wasn't what worried her.

Earlier on when she had been pondering about her real body taking the hit for her dream body, what with the flash blindness. But hadn't she been drowning in her dreams and then woken up choking on blood mixed water? Naru hadn't mentioned anything, neither had anyone else and perhaps they didn't suspect anything, but there was something wrong, Mai was sure of that! It could be the emergence of a new ability or perhaps just her dream walking getting stronger, but either way her dream and real body were connected. So did that mean, that if Tamaki managed to hurt her or worse in the dreams like he'd been trying to, did that mean bye-bye Mai here in the real world? He had shot her in the head during a dream and it hadn't affected her but even so the thought of dreaming to Mai seemed a lot scarier than it had been before.