A/N: Plot bunnies won't leave me alone, so this story emerges. This is my first attempt at Ghost Hunt Fic.
Title: The Ups and Down in the Life of Taniyama Mai
Pairing: NaruxMai
Summary: Mai is not as ordinary as she appeared to be – she has a secret and a latest case taken by the SPR forces her to lay it out in the open. Follow her as she and the SPR gang carried on in their ghost hunting adventures… Eventual NaruMai.
Disclaimer: Ghost Hunt is not mine, copyright belonged to Fuyumi Ono.
Author's Notes: Continuation of where I left off last chapter…
Chapter 10 – Case 3: Magical or Paranormal? Part 2
Taniyama Mai stood in the dark astral plane site glaring about her surrounding, with her arms crossed at the front of her chest and her shoe tapping the surface of the unseen ground in irritation. The astral plane was just as how she recalled it to be, full of darkness surrounded by the frequently seen wills o the wisps. Still, the brunette was getting kind of irritated by the lack of something or rather someone here with her.
"EUGENE DAVIS, by the count of three... you jolly well come out from wherever you are hiding. If not, I'll be marching up to that twin of yours to demand an explanation out from him." Mai allowed a low growl to escape from her lips, as she threatens the air around her.
The elder Davis twin sighed, knowing that there was no way of him to wriggle out of this one without giving any information in exchange for Mai's silence. The brunette could be as stubborn as that twin little brother of his at times…
"Mai…"
The sound of her dream-guide finally speaking up in the dark, allowing her to pin-point his location caused the brunette to narrow her eyes at the teen in response.
"So glad that you've finally decided to show yourself, Gene…" Mai gritted out, annoyance apparent in her eyes.
"I figured hiding from you would not solve the problem in the long run, even if I could escaped today…the cycle would simply repeated itself again tomorrow or the day after to say. So…" Gene shrugged his response before sighing aloud and asked.
"Fired your question then, and by that I meant only one question." Gene emphasized.
Mai mulled over the questions she had for the elder twin silently in her mind, she decided to leave her fuzzy memories issue aside for the time-being and concentrated on Gene's whereabouts instead. Judging from the snippets of the conversation she had the chance to overhear from Madoka, Naru and Lin earlier on in the day… she could gathered from it that Lin and Naru's reason for coming down to Japan was because of Gene. Apparently, the duos were looking for Gene and had not been too successful in that area all these while. The question now was why…
Mai could simply ask her question, but there is a possibility of Gene beating about the bush about the response and not giving her a clear-cut and plain right answer.
"Has your visiting trip to Japan got anything to do with me…?" Mai eventually asked.
For a while, Eugene Davis was stumped. He had the dozen possible questions the brunette might be asking him swirling about in his mind as he tried to formulate a suitable response to each and every of it… but this was the last question on his mind to be deem possible for Mai to ask. Yet, it was this types of 'Yes', 'No' question that the brunette eventually decided to ask him…why?
"Come on, Gene. Answer me…it's not really a hard question to respond to, isn't it? A typical Yes, No response type of question…I am quite sure it doesn't require much thinking on your side for it." Mai prompted, raising an eyebrow up in response as she regarded the teen with slight anticipation.
"To be frank with you, this is actually the last question in mind that I thought you would ask…" Gene commented, before he nodded his head to Mai in response to her previous query.
"So it does have something to do with me eh…" Mai murmured to herself, and mentally she added the term 'two years back' to her inner question of 'when did Gene visit Japan'.
How she arrived at that theory? Very simple actually, Naru and Lin ventured over to Japan from UK in search of Gene about eighteen months ago, and Mai returned from US only six months before. If Gene's reason for coming to Japan did have something to do with her, then it probably would be at least two years ago. Gees…she hated doing theoretical analysis, why couldn't her memory simply returned to her now? If she had had her full and complete memory intact, she would not have to be here coming up with the entire 'IF' hypothesis already.
"Can I have another go at asking my question?" Mai asked, despite knowing that it would be futile. .
"Well, I did say that you only could ask me one question. Didn't I?" Gene actually sounded gleeful at Mai's words, causing the brunette to pout childishly and huffed at him.
"Fine then…I will go and figure things out on my own." Mai throws back at her dream-guide, before she changed the topic of conversation.
"Was there anything that you might want to show me in relations to this case?" Mai prompted, eyeing the teen expectantly.
"No…you already knew what the issue with this case was already. Don't you?" Gene responded.
"Indeed…but there's no harm for being on the safe side though since for all I know, I could have misjudged the situation at hand. I guess this would be the first and last time I see you on this case, isn't it?" Mai questioned, while Gene nodded with a small smile of his own before leaning in and pecked the brunette adoringly on the forehead.
"Mai, it's time for you to wake." Gene whispered; pulling back to his upright standing position as the brunette's image started to fade into nothing.
Mai took her mobile phone from the bedside table in the room the Miyamoto family had been kind enough to arrange for Madoka and her usage during which period of investigation process. The time reflected on screen was four-thirty in the wee hours of the morning.
Swinging her feet over the side of the bed, Mai slipped her feet into her sneaker as she padded her way out from the room as light as possible. She made her way to the base room next and immediately landed her eyes on Lin who is still watching the monitors while Naru dozed on the sofa couch peacefully.
"Lin-san…how is it?" Mai prompted, despite knowing for a fact that nothing much would be reflecting on screen since this was hardly a haunting case.
"Twice the cameras caught faint yellowish light in the nursery but that was about it, nothing else could be seen from the screen. I went out personally to check things out while Naru continue to watch the monitors, the toys in the baby's crib were indeed floating but I cannot detect any unknown entity in there." The Chinese man responded matter-of-factly.
"I see…" Mai nodded distractedly to the Chinese man's words, her main concern now was in the attic. Due to her suspicion of what was actually hogging on to the attic space, she did not installed any cameras up there for fear of the entity residing up there causing any form of damages to those precious equipment of Naru's.
"Mai…what are you doing up so early?" Naru's voice broke Mai's focus in coming back up with a suitable response to Lin's earlier statement.
"I had something bugging me on my mind, that's all." Mai responded with a shrug of her shoulders.
"About the case…?" Lin prompted.
"Not exactly… although I do have some thoughts pertaining to the case, but the main reason behind my insomnia was something else entirely." Mai commented.
"Something else…like what exactly?" Naru prompted.
"Like what happened to Gene perhaps…?" Mai replied, her tone calm and casual. Although, the reaction she received from her current two companions were anything but nonchalance.
The tension in the air was thick, so much so that one could actually cut it with a knife. The twenty-nine year old Chinese man exhaled harshly, as he flicked immediate concern eyes to his solemn ward. Naru was quite tensed in his posture; while his face betrayed nothing of his emotions…the nineteen year old teen's eyes and clenched fists speak volumes of his agitation towards Mai's words.
"Taniyama-san, have you by chance heard anything yesterday evening before you scald yourself outside the door?" Lin hurried to ask before Naru could snap.
"…I may or may not have heard anything then. Does it really matters?" Mai throws back at the Chinese man, focusing her attention solely on Naru.
"Where did you hear that name from?" Naru questioned in a flat-like manner.
"From his lips, I supposed." Mai shrugged, although she did not quite remember her first encounter with the elder Davis twin in real life then but Naru don't have to know that.
"I beg your pardon?" Lin was absolutely bewildered by Mai's statement. How could Mai have known Gene when the former was dead… and judging from Mai's initial reaction from seeing Naru there has been no recognition or anything. Even the newly dubbed nickname of 'Naru' had been a fluke on her part…at least, that was what he thought of Mai and Naru's first encounter.
There was silence for a minute, before Naru took a deep breath to re-compose his emotional state. He thought back to their most recent case about the karaoke suite, about how his dead twin had suddenly reaches out to him using their twins' telepathy channel of communication after one of Mai's disturbing dream of the case. Gene had sounded quite concern for the brunette's condition then…but how did his twin knew of Mai's dream visions? Unless…
"Was he your guide?" The question was out before he could stop himself, and it causes both his assistants to glance over at him spontaneously. Lin had his eyes widening from shock and Mai…surprise? Was there some degree of mild amusement in those brown eyes of hers?
"I guess congrats are in order? Gene was indeed my dream guide, but how did you figure that out?" Mai admitted easily, seeing as Gene has never quite forbidden her to mention anything about him being her dream-guide. She simply opted to keep things silent all these while…
"I heard Gene's voice in my mind on our last case…" Naru stated flatly, ignoring the sharp look directed towards him from Lin and concentrate mainly on the brunette's reaction to his words.
Mai's face darken several shades upon the end of his statement, and Naru thought he heard the brunette muttered something eerily similar to 'meddling busybody'…but he cannot be certain. His hearing may be good, but not that supreme to decipher those incoherent mutterings of the brunette when he was standing opposite to the girl.
"And you didn't think it important to tell us this because…?" Naru prompted next, sounding irked by Mai's decision to keep such important information away from him. Inwardly, he has no idea whom he should be angrier with… should his anger be directed towards his twin for choosing to go to Mai with those clues for the cases he was working on, or should he be mad at his assistant for keeping away his twin's presence in her dreams a secret from him.
"I didn't know it was Gene back then, I thought he was a more sentimental and friendly version of you initially… What's the point of telling then? Hilarity would sure present itself to us, and not to mention all that possible teasing remarks from Masako would definitely occur from time to time if I had told you guys about it." Mai reasoned.
Lin who had been listening in to the exchange between the duos for quite some time, suddenly interjected with a question of his. He was lost in the midst of the conversation now, and Mai's earlier statement of not knowing Gene's identity when she first started having those dreams of hers had flooded him with confusion. When Taniyama first admitted of her knowing Gene's identity from the former lips, he had assumed Gene informed her of Naru's identity from the start of those dreams of hers. Now though, it seems not to be the case… and knowing Gene, if he did not correct Taniyama's assumption of him being Naru during the first dream meeting. The elder boy would not do anything to change the fact, so how did Taniyama figured out Naru and Gene's identity?
"Pardon my interruption, but I have a few questions on my part that I'd hope that you will help to address." Lin said.
"Go ahead then, I'll try my best to answer them for you." Mai responded, her tone cooling significantly. Speaking with Naru had always managed to bring out the worse in her… so it was actually good to have an alternative party to converse with, at this current point of time.
"You mentioned previously that you had no idea of Gene's identity when you first gotten those dreams on our cases, what causes you to set Gene and Naru apart? While on the subject, do you actually have any inkling to Naru's true identity?"
"Flashback images from my last year in US led me to discover the truth. I didn't mention it before because I hadn't realized it until recently myself. Apparently, I had a chunk of my memories missing from my last year of being in the US. I do not know what had led me to lose these memories and what triggered off my sub-conscious to start recalling these images. What I do know from it all was that Gene was involved in every missing piece of my memories." Mai paused to let her words sink into the Chinese man before continuing on her speech.
"At first, I thought that was Naru… I didn't know of his identity then. Remember how I ask you whether you and Naru had been to the US before?" Mai glances up just in time to see realization dawning in on the Chinese man, and nodded grimly to the underlying question she had detected from the said man.
"Yes, when you responded that Naru has never been to the US before… I realized that the teen in my memories that resembled so much to my 'dream Naru' could not be the same person. That was when the name of 'Eugene Davis' sprang into my mind. Out of curiosity, I did a search on the internet about Eugene Davis and imagine my surprise when I look at the photographs featured in the articles…the photograph was one featuring the infamous Davis twins. The caption actually read Eugene and Oliver Davis…I went on to confront him in my dream later on, and he confirmed my suspicion then. So Yes, I know who Naru actually was… seeing as the one I'm seeing in my dream happened to be Gene, Naru must have been the other twin. Oliver Davis, otherwise he was known as 'Noll' and in Japan, by the nickname of 'Naru'." Mai concluded her speech, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed defensively in front of her chest area as she regarded her two companions blandly.
"…" The twenty-nine year old Koujo Lin pinched the bridge of his nose wearily, he had to admit the information he had just received from the brunette was rather overwhelming to him. He was inwardly thankful that Madoka was not here with them at this moment of time, if not…
Meanwhile, Naru was more concern of Mai's memory loss issue. Inwardly, he was wondering whether Mai's memory loss had had anything to do with his twin's demise. Come to think of it now… his twin had been quite secretive and adamant about coming down to Japan then. Could Mai actually be the reason behind Gene's insistency on the trip? What exactly was going on between them? What actually happened to Gene during that six months period prior to the incident?
"Mai…do you really want to know about what happen to Gene here in Japan?" Naru prompted, as he contemplated on letting the brunette in on the contents of his ultimate purpose for travelling down to Japan. Beside him, Lin was shooting warning looks at his direction which he was trying his hardest to ignore by concentrating his attention on the brunette.
'Noll…don't you dare to tell her about it.' Gene's voice sounded in the sub-conscious of Naru's mind again, just as the stoic teen was attempting to speak.
'Why not…?' Naru send back defiantly at his dead twin.
'Just don't…' Gene was leaving him no room for discussion.
'You would have to give me a reason for it…' Naru argued mentally with his twin.
'…I don't want her to know, at least not to hear it from you.' That was the last thing Gene said before cutting off his connection to his younger twin.
In the end, Naru chooses not to speak of the issue again and instead send Mai out to get tea for his consumption much to the brunette's annoyance. Breakfast was taken in silence in the dining area of the Miyamoto family, and regardless of how Madoka probed Mai to let her in on what exactly happened earlier that morning in the base…the brunette remained tight-lipped about the conversation which took place between her, Naru and Lin then.
Later that afternoon, Mai was walking along the corridor-way heading for the attic deeply in thoughts when she chanced upon the moving portrait that Miyamoto Chihaya was talking about.
"Oh my… what a pleasure to have a descendant of the Yukimura clan in our humble abode…" The sudden sound of a foreign voice speaking up from behind causes Mai to take three steps back and stopped in front of a portrait hung on the wall along the corridor hallway.
"It is my pleasure to have a chance to meet you too, Lady Annabelle." Mai responded, after consulting the name imprinted on the bottom frame of the portrait.
The name on the frame read 'Annabelle Marie Francis, 1819 – 1903'; which Mai gathered was a magical portrait of the Miyamoto family by marriage.
"It's nice to have someone around here to speak without sending them off in a panicky manner." The portrait Annabelle commented dramatically by pulling out a hanky from nowhere and going all sentimental on Mai.
"Oh… you've tried speaking with the other residents down here?" Mai asked her interest piqued.
"Why, yes… there are a few family friends whom resided here for a brief period of time before. Obviously, they have not been told the slightest bit about their family heritage. When I attempted to greet them and make some small conversations, they had all but yelped in fright running down the hallways screaming bloody terror. The adults came on to investigate afterwards, only to claim me a ghost… attempting to get in exorcist to exorcise the entire place. Thankfully, old Stephen came back in time to take over the estate." The portrait was sniffing in disdain when she talked about the previous owner before Shinchirou's father.
"So after that few incidents, you never attempted to talk again?" Mai inquired with mild curiosity.
"Well no… old Stephen wasn't really a man of many words. We basically ignored one another presence and existence, but his magic core kept me moving though. I stilled for a period of one month following his passing, as his son was a squib but after his granddaughter moved in…my portrait started to move again. A very talented young witch that one was, but the mother was a little on the paranoid side." Annabelle commented with a rueful shake of head towards the end of the statement.
Mai maintain her silence about Chihaya's paranoid state, not wanting to be seen standing in the hallway arguing with some portrait as that would have be seen as silly. Slowly, Mai steered the conversation towards the knocking sound from the attic, and from Annabelle's recount – she confirmed her nagging suspicion that it was indeed a boggart residing up there and not something else dreadful like the gnome or ghoul.
Mai spend the next fifteen minutes or so speaking in the empty corridor-way with the portrait, and wriggling out information that relates to the Miyamoto family which their client was not aware of. Apparently, Miyamoto Shinchirou was a descendant from a fellow estranged member of the family. This house only goes to his father when the magical lineage of the family dies out with the death of the rightful owner about fifty years ago.
The other descendants of the rightful owner lineage are non-magical and they married normal beings that always make a big fuss out from the moving portrait thinking that this house was haunted. It appeared that they had attempted various exorcism deeds on the estate but when nothing changes, they had fled the place in terror-like manner getting rid of the house at an extremely low pricing. Eventually, Miyamoto Shinchirou's father fork out the money from his own pocket to purchase back the estate and nobody else from his estranged family bothered with the idea of letting go of the estate to the former. Although, Mai had an inkling if the ancestor of the Francis and Miyamoto family ages ago knew of this situation today… he or she might be rolling in their graves to speak now.
"Excuse me, Chihaya-san… do you perhaps know where could I locate your husband?" Mai entered the dining area where Chihaya was seen feeding her newly awaken twenty-month old daughter with some mash potato for breakfast.
"I gathered he would be in the Study room, is anything the matter?" Miyamoto Chihaya inquired, a look of concern creeping into her eyes.
"Oh no… nothing to worry about, I'm just going to get some history information on the house itself to help me out in the investigation process." Mai lied smoothly as she told the lady of the house.
"I'll get a maid to show you the way to our Study room…" With that, Chihaya beckoned for the kitchen helper – a mid-thirty woman to lead Mai away from the dining area.
"Sir, Taniyama-san of the SPR is here to speak with you." The maid knocked twice on the Study door before speaking up.
"Enter!" Miyamoto Shinchirou voice was heard from behind the door, while Mai nodded her thanks to the maid who went back to her duties at hand soon after Mai was granted permission to enter the Study room.
"Good morning, Miyamoto-san. I hope I am not intruding on anything important, but I figured I would need to speak with you prior to revealing the investigation outcome with your wife." Mai said, cutting straight to her point as she was never a fan of beating around the bush while discussing issues.
Miyamoto Shinchirou froze in mid-actions as he raised alarming wide eyes to meet Mai's brown ones, and then he swallowed nervously and said. "I beg your pardon…?"
"Miyamoto-san, I believed you heard me correctly the first time…" Mai responded in a deadpanned manner.
"You mean…you actually have an answer to explain all these occurrences down here?" The man sounded incredulous when he commented, arching an eyebrow up in elegance as he addressed Mai.
"Well…magical occurrences, was it not? Moreover, a fulfilling chat with a certain portrait of your great-grand aunt thrice removed solved the problem effortlessly." Mai mused aloud, directing a smirk his direction.
"You aren't sceptical about the idea of magic?" Miyamoto Shinchirou prompted, trying his hardest to appear unfazed by Mai's proclamation.
"What's there to be sceptical about?" Mai throws back easily, as she reached into her skirt's pocket and withdraw her own pointer wand out from within. A quick wave about the room had the scent of lavender lingering in the air.
"…I see." Miyamoto Shinchirou stated flatly, before sitting back down on his chair and regard Mai with cool eyes. "So what is it that you required to speak with me about?"
"I would like to know the reason why you hadn't had the insight to brief your wife about the history of this house, and the possibility of your daughter's magical abilities when it first manifested itself to be known in this place?" Mai responded.
"I didn't think it crucial then, but now…"
"In short, you didn't think that you would end up inheriting this estate prior to your father's death. When your daughter first displayed her magical talents, you were partially elated with joy and yet at the same time plagued with worry. Your wife has no idea of your family background, and because you were born a squib…you neglected to inform her about the possibility of your daughter inheriting abilities that you have not been bestowed upon. Pertaining to the knocking sounds from the attic, have you ever checked it out on your own yet?" Mai asked.
"I did… intend to but I guess it slipped my mind. And then my wife told me to wait for the experts…" Miyamoto Shinchirou muttered aloud in response to Mai's query.
"I see… in that case, do you mind showing me to the attic then?" Mai brought up the issue to go and investigate the attic then, successfully drawing the talk between them to a close.
The culprit behind the knocking sound turns out to be a boggart indeed, and Mai's solution to it was to trap it permanently in a sealed compartment with silencing charm in place. Since there was hardly any way to get rid of a boggart, and it has no form and reacted only to each and everyone's inner fear. Mai did not bother to look at the boggart direction, and merely cast the counter-spell to it before it could even took up the form of her inner most fear. Previously, it was taking up the form of the figure of Miyamoto Shinchirou's father who Mai suspected to be Shinchirou's inner fear.
"I think that's all I could do to it for now…" Mai murmured softly under her breath, before exiting from the attic with Miyamoto Shinchirou in tow. Together, they made their way to the base room and once inside, Mai told Madoka to get her university friend and that they are wrapping up the case.
Five minutes later, Miyamoto Chihaya appeared in front of the SPR looking quite confused. Madoka mirrored her expressions, while Mai merely lifted an eyebrow up in question.
"Mai-chan… shouldn't Lin be readying himself for some kind of exorcism acts? You mention that the mystery is solved, isn't it? But I just saw Haruko-chan floating in mid-air a while ago." Madoka spoke up, voicing her doubt across to the brunette in bewilderment.
"By floating… do you mean something like this?" Mai responded, as she focuses on bringing her magic forefront onto her bare hands and flicked towards the teacup in extreme concentration. Slowly, the tea-cup rattle from its unmoving position slightly before it rises up into the air with no one supporting it.
Madoka thought she saw Mai's hand emitting a faint pinkish light but she cannot be certain of it, but her friend Miyamoto Chihaya was openly gasping at Mai now.
"Oh my gods…that's how the toys stay afloat when Haruko was lying in the crib wide awake and with her hands outstretched. The yellowish light was visible on her hand back then… Goodness, how could this have had happen? Surely, my daughter is not psychic…or is she?" Miyamoto Chihaya asked sounding quite nervous.
"No…this isn't a sign of your daughter being psychic. Although some of the traits could be similar, but it wasn't due to any possession act either. Your daughter is quite normal to say, and quite talented in her magical ability." Mai commented, smiling as she nodded to the figure of Miyamoto Shinchirou to explain things fully to his wife.
"Magical ability…?" Both Chihaya and Madoka repeated a look of incredulity in their eyes.
"Yes, magical ability… contrary to popular beliefs witches and wizards do exist in our plane of existence. They were merely hidden from public knowledge. Chihaya-san, I suggested for you to listen to the explanation provided on your husband's part…as for you, Madoka…I will fill you in on the details later. For now, let's pack up and get ready to leave this place." Mai announced, turning around to assist the Chinese man in packing up the equipments in order to avoid having to explain to the curious researcher eyeing her with enthusiastic eyes.
Date started: 12/2/2013
Date completed: 13/2/2013
P.S: Okay, case closed. This is a fast one, isn't it? Two days to solve the mystery… well, seeing as it wasn't really a paranormal case. Naru would have chucked it into the bin if it wasn't for Madoka's insistence to take the case… I'm debating on which haunting case to do next; I have two ideas in mind…