As Naru uncovered his brother's body and saw the black hair, all Mai could do was stare. Once Naru had explained that he would handle the body and the divers had left, the team was told that S.P.R would close.
Mai's eyes only strayed from the body for a moment when Bou-san, John and Ayako offered to do a blessing.
She couldn't stop feeling as if there was something missing, undone work. Her instincts were confusing her, calling her attention to the body but also to herself. She didn't understand…
Just before the body was packed away she kissed her hand and settled it on Gene's forehead.
Most would cringe from the cold, pallid and waxy feel of his skin but Mai didn't care. A life gone too quickly, lost by accident, unable to ever be retrieved. A goodbye would be the minimum she could do for him, for the times he had comforted her and the times he had led through her dream.
Three days after Naru had left Mai decided that she would try meditating. The forgotten children case showed her that she could benefit from being able to relax in difficult situations. Her life as a ghost hunter was finished but that didn't mean that her dream and ability to see spirits would go away.
Letting her head, her legs, her arms, hands and feet and lastly her core. She sunk into her conscience.
The trance felt like a lull, an iceberg floating over waves till it finally melted to the sea below. She felt so light, airy even, as if every last bit of tension had left her body.
As usual Gene was waiting for her and for the first time she called him the right name
"Gene! You should have passed one?" She asked him.
"Not yet, I wanted to give you a final goodbye". Sitting on the floor, he continued "I don't think you realised how I ended up being your spirit guide".
"For months I followed Naru around as he searched for my body, unable to speak to him. I was lonely until I saw you over Naru's shoulder talking about ghost stories. Your spirit is brighter than you know Mai. It calls to spirits, the joy and empathy you exude, I've never felt anything like it" He explained.
Mai was slightly dumbstruck, not realising he had been with her for so long. That incident was a year and a half ago now, she only met him in cases after that.
"I'm sorry to say that this is goodbye. My final wish has been accomplished by Noll finding my body, I'm sorry to leave you alone here" He said somberly. He would miss Mai, he didn't know what was waiting for him in the afterlife but perhaps he would someday meet her again.
"I'm going to miss you, I hope you know that" Mai was trying to hold back tears. Naru and Gene were both leaving. Naru was already on a plane back home, to put Gene's body back to rest. This was the end of S.P.R Japan.
Walking over to Gene, she stood on her tippy toes and gave him a kiss on his forehead. This time he wasn't cold and pallid, just warm.
As soon as she pulled away, it was as if his body turned to dust. Gold and silver flecks covered her vision, as if the willow-wisps she saw in the astral-plane had exploded.
The light airiness she had been feeling till now was gone, she felt as if her body had suddenly regained gravity. She was sinking again, into sleep this time.
For Naru the arrival at Heathrow was odd. Lin had gone ahead, anxious to see Madoka after such a long time, so he was left alone.
He hadn't told his parents that he had found the body yet, unsure how to explain and unwilling to have them rush to Japan. His father had lost all hope of finding Gene but Luella still held on hope that she would find her little boy.
Gene's body, now at the mortuary, needed to be declared dead again as the UK authorities don't recognise Japanese death certificates. It was an easy process, check for heart and breathing signs for five minutes. Measure brain activity and reflexes for neurological signs of life.
The mortician however was taking her time to come down to do Gene. In a stroke of spontaneity he pulled back the black bag around his brother.
Gene's skin had surprisingly little decay, maybe because of being in a still and clean river? What would his brother be doing now if he hadn't been dead? Maybe had a girlfriend or even been married by this point?
But that woman had cut his life short and there was no way of getting it back.
Naru turned away, planning on getting that dratted woman to come and do the declaration. He had already been there an hour and there still wasn't any sign of her coming.
His train of thought, however, was thrown out the window when he suddenly heard spluttering behind him. There wasn't supposed to be any other living being in the room with him.
When he turned around he found the unexpected. His dead brother, emphasis on the dead, spitting up river water onto the mortuary floor.
Gene's dead body looked up at him and croaked out "Damn that was shit. That lake water tasted awful".
For once Naru didn't have a comeback, what could he say?
By the way he was talking, Naru was sure it was Gene. No matter how unbelievable that seems.
"We need to go. You're supposed to be dead" Naru really wasn't in the mood to explain to the mortuary why a dead person was now alive. He could leave understanding till later.
Picking Gene up in bridal style, Naru walked briskly out.
Mai woke up at 0300 to a very unpleasant headache. Even though she slept for eight hours, she felt like she had run a marathon.
Her stomach rolled umplensently, pulling herself up she rushed to the bathroom where she stayed for the next hour. Wave after wave of nausea came over her, even after she had nothing left to throw up. She was shaky and her world was off-kilter, her whole body protesting. She didn't know what she had done to deserve this.
That afternoon as she began to recover from the 'flu', she was still exhausted but not as bad as before. It was just her luck to catch a bug especially when her school wasn't impressed by her absence especially as she doesn't have S.P.R as an excuse anymore.
She had been faffing around in math class when it first happened. She was pulled into a vision but this had never happened outside of a case before.
Naru was standing in a morgue next to Gene's body. As he turned around he heard a noise, a cough?
As he turned around he saw Gene's dead body coughing up water. The previously pasty white skin, now pink. His eyes now open.
"Damn that was shit. That lake water tastes awful" He spoke, his voice croaking.
'He's alive?...?' Mai wasn't sure what to think. She watched on as Naru picked up his brother and nearly ran out of the morgue.
The vision was a split second, unnoticeable to the outside, but her shock was not. Her mind was reeling, not knowing what to do. 'I need to call Lin'
Lin left her his number with the words "Call me if you need me" The most he had ever spoken to her. I think this situation counts as needing assistance.
Stuffing her belongings into her bag, she sat up and walked briskly to the door. As the teacher was about to ask her what she was doing she was already a step ahead "It's a family emergency"
Practically running to the gates, she dialled Lin's number and waited for the international dial tone to ring.
"This is Lin" Was the short greeting she received.
"Lin I'm... not sure what I just saw but Gene is alive?"
"Mai? What do you mean Gene's alive?"
"I saw Naru at the morgue, Gene spoke and Naru ran off with him" She breathed "I don't know what to do.."
Silence rang from the other side of the phone as Lin collected his thoughts. Had Mai just had a dream or was this a proper psychic's dream? He must admit that he was struggling to believe what she was saying, it's not a common occurrence for dead people to come to life.
Suddenly on Lin's end there was a heavy and urgent knock at the door. Phone in hand he opened the door to find Noll and Gene, both of whom were very much alive.
Settled on the couch and Mai on video call, the questioning began.
"Tell me something only Eugene Davis would know" Lin demanded, he had to confirm that it was really Gene. If it wasn't, then they had a very odd possession on their hands.
"I once swapped places with Noll for a maths exam but got caught when Noll wrote his name on my sheet" Gene admitted. His mother had given him such a bollocking afterwards, mostly for being caught.
"Umm" Was Lin's response, clearly that was enough for him.
Naru however had other questions "Why's Mai on a video call?" He was genuinely curious why she was on a call with Lin.
"She had a vision of Gene waking up and was unsurprisingly distressed" Naru was a bit jealous that she had called Lin but he had never given her his number so it wasn't surprising. Also rather intrigued by her psychic abilities, that was quite a distance to have a vision from but also very close to the time of the occurrence, not even an hour from the event.
"Let's get to the main question: How is Gene alive?" Naru really wanted an answer, people don't just randomly come back to life after nearly a year and a half dead.
One thing that Naru was realising more and more was that Gene, for being a year and a half dead, had had very little signs of decay when he was pulled out of the water. Even more so was the lack of injuries from the car accident.
"What's the last thing you remember Gene?" Naru asked.
"Quite honestly my memories are quite patchy but the last thing I remember before waking up was saying goodbye to Mai" Gene explained.
Eyes turned to Mai at this point, she was the last point of contact with 'spirit' Gene. Knowing she would have to provide an explanation, she began "I decided to try meditation, I wanted to see if Gene was still in the astral-plane and he was.
When we met there we said goodbye and just after I kissed his forehead he disappeared into shiny dust".
Mai explained blushing. It felt like a very personal moment to be discussing in public.
"Do you remember anything else Mai? I know you like to leave out important details" Naru said teasingly, for Gene it was weird to see his brother like this. Naru wasn't exactly the 'teasing' type.
Anger brought a flush to Mai's cheeks as she bit back at Naru "I do not! Besides I can't concentrate properly right now, being sick plus that vision has really put me off kilter" She pouted. Naru was always on to her, she wished he would pick on someone else.
"You've been sick?" Naru knew the potential significance of being ill after a psychic episode and by Gene's expression he did too. Psychics never really knew that they had used too much power until they were sick. Most human's had slightly more Yin energy just because of being alive and being able to produce memories; whereas spirits had slightly more Yang energy from being creatures from the shadows.
Oftentimes when spiritualists get sick it's because they've used too much Yin energy and their body fritzes out, not being used to the imbalance. Spiritualists who use their powers a lot tend to have a bigger buffer of energy but the difference is that when they run out, they crash, like Naru did.
"As soon as I woke up from speaking with Gene I felt like I had the flu, I'm just tired now. Just my luck I would catch a bug now" Mai clearly didn't realise what the boy's concern was.
Naru had a theory, a far fetched one but a working theory. Mai had unintentionally given Gene energy, this energy healed or woke up the statis on Gene's body, allowing him to be revived. He had no clue what her powers had done but he was thankful to have his brother back.
Naru knew what the course of action would need to be "Mai would you like to come to the UK?".
TAAADDDDAAAAAAAAA, this is my creation. MUAHHHHHHH! I'm sooo proud.