Chapter 14: Interlude

Mai sat at an old portable typewriter, typing faster than she normally did on her computer. The sound of the metal letters hitting the paper was therapeutic, as Mai retyped her manuscript into the format she wanted the book to be in. This novel differed from her previous works, as it was written as a personal diary instead of the investigation diary all her other books were written as. Since this book was supposed to be Megan's writing before she joined SPR it made sense to make the prose a more personal narrative than an account of what happened during an investigation.

Naru sat nearby working on a laptop , but he was reading; concentrating intently on the words that were on the screen. He looked across the room at her, "The descriptions of the haunting are all wrong. If you want to make it seem like regular people are saying these things, especially teenagers. Try using more of the wording that you used in high school. Look over some of your old diaries if you need help with wording," he said.

"I'll think about it," Mai said not looking up from the typewriter. This was their arrangement to stave off Naru's boredom. It had been weeks since their last case, and Mai was in the midst of rewriting her book. She would work all morning, and then takethe afternoon off, and the pair would go out and do something.
"It would help the flow of the novel. In all your other books you went into detail about the types of experiences people had with the haunting, and the information we were given about the case itself. Here, it reads as if the only reason I took the case was because some teenage girl claimed she could see spirits from the war," Naru said glaring over the top of his file.

"I realize that Naru. That's why I'm in the process of editing and rewriting the book," Mai sighed, her hands leaving the keys of the typewriter. Naru sighed as well, his eyes returning to the screen in front of him. Mai pulled herself up from her seat, stretching her limbs out as she went.

"Would you like some tea," Mai asked walking towards the kitchen. Although Naru did not answer, Mai assumed he did in fact want a cup, since it had been nearly two hours since his last one. Mai normally used tea as a way to break up her writing, it gave her a chance to reflect on what she'd written and where she wanted to go with it. Now that she was in the editing stage she didn't need as much tea, but with Naru here, she was forced to take fairly regular breaks to get his tea.

From the kitchen Mai could hear Naru muttering to himself about various things. "Naru, are you all right in there," she called as she set the kettle on. "Yes, Mai. I'm just reviewing something," he called. Mai snickered to herself as she waited for the water. He always said that when he was trying to sound busier than he was. Mai spent the remaining minutes before the kettle screamed collecting a cup, saucer, and tea bag for Naru. She had this down to an art now, within a minute to the water boiling Mai could have the tea bag in and the cup in front of Naru steam still rising from the cup.

"There you go Noll," she said as she watched him set the cup aside to let it brew. "I trust this isn't one of your caffeine free varieties," he mused leaning over to sniff the tea. Mai shook her head, "no, I only switch to the decaffeinated after 8 pm."

Once his tea was brewed, the pair settled back into a comfortable silence that lasted until Naru stood up to leave. "Goodnight Naru," Mai said looking up from her typewriter. He was going home to make sure Lin knew he was still alive then he'd be back to make sure she slept.

When Naru returned he found Mai sitting on the floor of the apartment her fingers blackened, a screwdriver in hand. On the floor next to her was a small box filled with slim grey metal pieces. "What are you doing Mai," he asked raising an eyebrow.

"Ten minutes after you left the p decided he's rather be on staff at the dead letter office instead of as a letter in my typewriter. All I need to do is replace it, but I can't seem to get the p to sit right," she said dropping the screwdriver. Naru sighed sitting down next to Mai looking at the outdated contraption in front of him. He studied the device for a minute before reaching his finger out to pull the o key forward slightly and puch the p in more. Once he allowed Mai to look at the typewriter she shook her head.

"How is it that I spend two hours trying to get this thing to work, and it takes you all of two seconds," she asked standing up. Naru sat on the floor looking at Mai. "My brain just works differently than yours Mai," he said. Mai huffed a little bit before storming off to her bedroom leaving the typewriter and the box of replacement letters on the floor.

He sighed picking up the dead letter tossing it in the trash as he made his way to the light switch. "Goodnight Mai," he called as he left for his own apartment locking the door behind him.

One Month Later

SPR stood outside of a swanky hotel in a fashionable district of Tokyo. "Does anyone know why Naru called us here," Monk asked starching the back of his head. Ayako looked over at him sighing, "Hopefully it's a case."

"I highly doubt that Kazuya would have us dress up like this for a case," John pointed out, as they had been instructed to dress for a cocktail party. Monk nodded. As the group neared the door a burly man in black stopped them. "Are you on the list," the man asked. The group stood there for a second looking between themselves. "We're SPR," Monk said. The man looked at the clipboard attached to a pillar behind him. He turned around and counted them. "You're one short," he said gruffly. The group looked around a moment.

"Masako Hara had a pressing engagement in Taiwan," John said. The man rolled his eyes raising the small rope that blocked the entrance to the hotel. Inside the group was ushered around a corner and down some stairs into an enormous ballroom. The room was decorated in red and black creating a macabe effect. Scattered around the room were tables covered with was looked like hardcover books. People were everywhere milling about talking to others laughing as waiters in red vests and black shirts moved among them offering drinks and food.

The group moved close to the nearest table covered in books. John reached down to pick up a volume. "The First Case," he read to the group.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so glad you all could make it," an overly cherry voice sounded from the other side of the table. The group looked up from the book in John's hand to see a woman about forty years old in a very revealing white dress that clashed horribly with her fake tan and bleached hair. "You lot are SPR right?" She asked. The group nodded.

"Well hi! I'm Janice Bergsohnn, Maria's publisher," she said. The group paled. This woman was way too perky to be the head of a multinational publishing firm. "It's nice to meet you Mrs. Bergsohnn," Monk said extending his hand.

"OH MY GOSH, You're that rock star my daughters always going on about. How'd you end up working in the ghost hunting business?" she asked obviously leching. Monk tried to inch away from her, only to bump into Ayako spilling her glass of white wine in the process.

"Really Takigawa, you need to be more careful," Ayako said angrily looking for napkins to wipe off her dress. "Sorry Ayako," he whispered back.

As the two continued to bicker over how exactly everything was Takigawa's fault, a pretty girl with black hair wearing a blue and white halter neck dress and shiny silver pumps. Ayako tore her eyes away from Takigawa to gape at the girl's shoes.

"Are those from Louboutin," she asked looking at the heels. The girl nodded reaching down to pull one of the heels off her foot to show the signature red sole. "How did you get those? I heard only 100 pairs were made for the entire world," Ayako continued in awe of the girl.

"Well, I blew most of my advance on them," the girl said snickering as Ayako's face dropped. Or at least her face dropped until her saw Naru standing behind the girl. "Mai?" she asked. The girl winked.

"Tonight, I am Maria Tsuzuki," Mai said laughing slightly, "And I'd like you to meet my date Oliver Davis." The group turned and looked at Naru. He shrugged as if switching between two identities was something he did every day.

"Do you like the new book," Mai asked handing each member of SPR a copy from the table to her right. John took two as he'd promised Masako that he'd get her one. Takigawa opened the front cover to read the blurb on the inside of the dust jacket.

"Its seems alright I guess," he said after a moment of contemplation.

"Can we just stop talking about a bunch of words on paper and get to the party," Ayako asked suddenly bored by the prospect of this being a book party.

"Sure," Mai said, "eat, drink, and dance to your heart's content. I'll be doing a signing/reading/question session around 10 or so, other than that enjoy yourselves." Naru and Mai turned to leave, but Mai whipped around "Oh, and don't forget your gift bags."

The night went fairly well. SPR spilt up going their own separate ways. John spent time sitting at one of the few tables in the room reading Mai's book. Ayako and Takigawa drank an danced the night away, but left before Mai's book reading. As for Lin, he stood somewhere off to the side refusing to mingle with the other guests. He had said something earlier about not liking parties, but Mai figured that it had something to do with Madoka's absence.

Regardless it looked as though everyone in attendance was having fun. Even during the reading and signing session, no one griped about her reading or standing in line for her signature. As each person set their book in front of her, Mai smiled. This was her biggest launch party ever. It seemed to go more smoothly then any of her previous one had.

Once she was done autographing books, Mai made her way to the bar that ran along the back wall of the ballroom. "Hole in One please," she said to the man behind the bar. He nodded and went about making the drink.

"Alcohol Maria? Is that a wise idea," a voice said from behind her. "I'm of legal age Naru. I can do what I want" Mai answered as the drink was placed in front on her. She picked it up taking a sip. The tea took the edge off the whiskey as the mixture slid down her throat. Naru eyed her as she took another sip for good measure. "Go away Naru. If you want to be my father you're too late," she said. Mai finished her first and ordered another before the others realized she was standing at the bar.

By the time anyone else walked over to her, Mai was having trouble standing up straight. "Mai are you okay," Tawigawa asked when he finally approached her "Course," she hicuped her face completely red, "I'm just dandy." Mai tried to walk forward, only to lose her balance. Takigawa caught her before she hit the bar.

"Mai, how much have you had," he asked steadying her. She giggled holding up four fingers. Monk sighed. Mai was drunk. "Mai, may I see your car keys," he asked. Mai more giggly than before dug through her clutch pulling out a ring of three keys and a little leather fob. Monk took them from her and deposited them in the inside pocket of his jacket.

As if by divine intervention Naru walked by. "Naru, could you give Mai a ride home please," he asked. Naru nodded looking over his former assistant. He'd never seen her drunk before. Of course the last time he's seen her prior to this she was underage and too much of a good girl to experiment. He knew from experience that drunk mediums wasn't a good thing. They had no control when drunk and everything went to hell that way.

"Come on Maria, time to go home." Naru said. "But I want to stay," Mai whined like a child. "You need your rest Maria. Don't you have a tv interview tomorrow," Naru asked pulling her slightly towards the door. "Alright," she mumbled as they made slow progress across the room.

"Maria, leaving so soon," a very drunk Janice asked as they neared the door. "Mrs. Bergsohnn, I'm afraid Maria has had a bit too much to drink. It would be best if she got home sooner than later," Naru said trying to go around the annoying woman, but she kept stumbling in front of them. When they finally managed to get around her Janice snickered a bit calling after them "don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Naru shook his head dragging Mai out into the lobby of the hotel.

Another fifteen minutes and they were parked in the basement of Mai's building. Naru looked over at Mai and found her sound asleep in the passenger seat. He sighed turning the car off and got out, making his way to the other side of the car. He opened the passenger door and extracted Mai. "Leave me alone," she mumbled as she buried her head in Naru's chest. Naru chuckled a bit, "I couldn't have you getting sick all over my nice car." Mai didn't respond.

Naru managed to get up to her apartment without much difficulty. There had been a look by another man in the elevator, but other than that it was too late for the nosier people to be up. Once inside the apartment Naru deposited Mai in bed. He really should change her into something more appropriate for bed, but he didn't want her angry with him in the morning. Naru tucked Mai in carefully making sure that she couldn't latch on to him.

Then once she was secure he walked to her office where the overstuffed leather sofa was and sat down He sighed. Lin would be furious in the morning. Naru reached an arm out to the bookcase behind the sofa pulling a book at random. Death in the Clouds presented itself to him. He normally refrained from reading popular novels, but it was all Mai had. He opened the book and started to read.

A/N: Hi everyone. I hope you enjoyed this little filler chapter. I had a lot of fun writing it. I'm already working on the next case and they'll be a little different since Mai's going to be running around promoting her book a bit. Anyway, please read and review. The link for Mai's dress is below if you want to see it.

Mai's Party Dress (.com/bookmark/50s-halterneck-polka-dot-dress-from-vivien-of-holloway-1950s-dresses-from-vivien-of-holloway-1312509) I normally don't do this, but I can't do the dress justice.