Chapter 56
Mai never imagined her first day at SPR would feel like her first day of school.
Down to the snacks packed in her purse.
She even spent some time after dinner deciding on what to wear to "impress the cool kids". She packed some gym clothes for the more 'physical' tests on the docket, but opted for clean office chic. A black pencil skirt, frilly white blouse, red tweed jacket, and black kitten heel MaryJane's.
It was an unspoken truth that discussions on her powers with anyone she didn't know were taboo.
Naru also briefed her on the fact that other psychics with varying abilities would always be around the laboratory. Most importantly, just because other psychics had just as much to lose, that didn't mean they weren't willing to make roadkill of her to protect themselves.
'Don't trust anyone. Not even yourself. Loud and clear Naru.' Mai thought as they entered the parking garage adjacent the large imposing gothic structure.
Today's weather was a more typical overcast sky and it set the mood surreptitiously. Mai couldn't help the urge to grab Naru's hand or the back of Lin's suit jacket, but remained calm and steeled herself for what felt like war.
The interior structure was an impressive adaptive intervention architectural system. The brick frame stood while steel beams and glass walls supported the modern feel of the institution. Mai tried not to flinch as the security officer brushed his wand near the old wounds on her back.
"Ah… Good morning, Dr. Davis, Mr. Koujo, and Ms. Taniyama. Welcome to the society of paranormal research for our new comer. My name is Felicity Tanner and I will be your escort for the day." The chipper red head began.
"We do not require an escort. Where is Dr. Costa ?" Naru practically growled.
"Unfortunately, Dr. Costa has taken ill. Therefore, the roster of available assistants has changed for each test facility. If you'd like-" Felicity kept a brave face, but Naru placed up his hand.
"We do not require any further assistance Ms. Tanner." Naru didn't even bother looking at the girl as he headed toward the elevator. Mai followed the two and tried not to feel too distressed at the panic traveling over their attempted escorts face.
Neither of them said a word, and Mai couldn't help but to notice how heavily surveilled the entire facility was. It made sense that they would have to choose their words wisely or choose not to speak at all on most occasions.
Once they exited, it seemed like they entered an older wing of the structure. More stone work was featured as the three of them entered a room without knocking. Inside looked a bit more like SPR Japan with a quaint lobby and other offices surrounding the main meeting space. Just as they filed in a familiar head of pink hair greeted them.
"Good morning. I take it you've heard the news about Dr. Costa." Madoka shared glumly.
"Yes. We need to regroup before baselines are taken at 9. How long will he be out?" Naru inquired and the pinkette just shrugged.
"We won't know his diagnosis until later today. They've got me buried so I won't be able to sub. Professor Grenzer can assist for the rest of the week, but today you might have to play chess." Madoka stated frankly.
Noll retreated into one of the back offices without a word.
"Good morning, Mai. Welcome to SPR." Madoka shared an embrace with the young girl, which she graciously returned.
"Nice to see you Madoka. I get the feeling things aren't going as planned." Mai surmised from the tense atmosphere.
"Yes. Today will mostly be about getting your baseline measurements, along with your consultation. One of the only scientist Noll approved of has fallen mysteriously ill just in time for your arrival. There is a fair amount of buzz about a young psychic that Dr. Davis is personally bringing in for testing. Some are pulling strings and knocking down walls to be able to get a glimpse at you." Madoka shared with a sigh.
Something in Mai's gut sank at what seemed like a replay of Masako's warning.
"Don't worry darling. You happened to know enough of the right people to be able to get this handled." Madoka comforted with a smile.
Just as Mai was about to press further Naru came back into the main lobby at full speed.
"Mai. Change into your athletic wear. We'll have to rotate the schedule to avoid the vultures." Noll pointed to the bathroom in the back hall and Mai complied quietly.
"Ha! He actually made that little shrimp work out first thing in the morning. What a cad. I thought for sure he'd call up to get the next best recommendation. Well, I guess that's Oliver Davis for you. King of the unexpected." Marie cackled as she skated around the security room.
"Please, Ms. Williams, you have to leave before someone sees you." The security officer begged and the woman smirked.
"Fine. I've seen what I needed to. Just keep giving me what I want and I won't let your little secret spill. See you later Harold." Marie waved skipping her way out the door. She was fully aware that a lot of the staff were afraid of her and her mysterious psychic abilities. Most of SPR thought she could read minds, but she had no such ability.
However, what she was cable of was certainly nothing to sneeze at.
Her father had taught her well in the art of power, war, and seduction. Even without her paranormal skills; Marie would always be a force to be reckoned with. Her brownish-red curls moved lightly as her feet glided down the corridor toward her father's office.
They were scheduled for lunch today.
Upon entry the meticulously kept cold granite seemed just as unwelcoming as usual. The receptionist noted her arrival and waved her in. The man at the front desk hated Marie and did his best not to interact.
So that could only mean one thing.
"Let me guess. Another cancellation." Marie started flatly and the man behind the desk simply nodded.
"His next opening is in two weeks on Thursday. Shall I pencil you in?" He suggested and Marie nodded dumbly. Part of her wanted to stomp into his office and give him a piece of her mind.
But her more rational mind thought better of it.
Besides, there were much more entertaining ventures around SPR than eating alone in the cafeteria again.
Steaming water worked its way through her hair and down her back.
Mai hadn't realized how out of shape she'd become as a full-time student and a paranormal investigator. When she was younger, although she couldn't learn at the dojo; sensei Sango kept her busy with lots of chores. Then after she moved in on her own. Mai had plenty of jobs involving manual labor; sometimes two or three at a time.
She was thankful her time at SPR saved her from that, but she definitely didn't have the muscles she used to have.
The nurse on staff had her do a long list of exercises to establish her baseline health. Not to mention the blood and urine samples she provided. By the end of it, Mai felt a bit sore and exhausted.
Which is why the showers in the SPR locker room felt absolutely heavenly right now.
It was a communal style, not unlike the ones at her high school. Normally she'd feel at least a bit self-conscious of the scars on her back, but the only other woman here seemed to be in her own world.
"Excuse me." A voice called from behind her.
Mai turned awkwardly, not wanting to get her shampoo in her eyes. The other woman was tall, lean, and drop dead gorgeous. Her brownish-red curls framed her face perfectly, even when they were sopping wet.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but I left my body wash all the way in my locker. Can I steal some of yours?" She called over. Mai obliged immediately, sympathizing with her plight.
"Thank you so much. That's an interesting necklace you've got there." The woman said as Mai felt her hand touching her chest reactively.
"Yes, it's my good luck charm." Mai responded going back to rinsing her hair out.
"Oh really? Ironically, everyone in this building leans into our superstitions. Is it some magical key cut from a haunted hardware store ruled by a forgotten God ?" The woman speculated with a laugh. Mai giggled too feeling less and less self-conscious about their state of undress.
"Ha! Nothing that impressive. Just the key to my childhood home." Mai shared bashfully.
"That is incredibly sweet. I haven't seen you around here before, what's your name?" The woman inquired nearly finished with her cleaning ritual. Mai felt something in her gut flutter and she shut off the steamy pipe water on her side. She didn't want to give too much information about herself to anyone, even the ones who seemed harmless.
"I'm Mai, and you are?" Mai inquired carefully. The woman graciously handed back her strawberry body wash.
"I'm Marie. Pleased to meet you, Taniyama." Marie said and Mai immediately felt a chill from the woman she likely wouldn't have noticed before under the warm spray.
Clearly this woman knew more than she was letting on.
'So she's one of them.' Mai surmised and decided it was time to get back to Naru. Without two words Mai turned her back and left the showers.
"Give Oliver my regards!" She called over the echoey stalls. Mai could hear her laughing as she rushed to dry off and rejoin the others.
The trio waited in the office for Mai, and did their best to help offset the exorbitant amount of work Madoka was not so mysteriously assigned during their visit. Strange back orders and requests specifically from time periods where the SPR recordkeeping logs were strictly paper based.
"Ugh… who even cares about the hotel reservations of a case from the seventies !? One of our donors is actually paying to know this information? Seems farfetched." Madoka complained as she paced over to the phones to called down to the records department for the second time in the last hour.
Madoka was at least happy to have support, and even more so to have Lin around the SPR headquarters. It reminded her of old times, when the two of them were in charge of training the twins. Sneaking off for lunch and coffee dates in the cafeteria. The memories warmed her heart, but also brought the ache of the missing person in their quartet.
Time could be cruel.
Just as Madoka thought to bring up a funny story, Mai stormed into the office shutting the door behind her. Noll was quick to stand to meet her taking in the panic in her eyes.
"Mai, what happened?" Naru pressed immediately.
Clearly, she'd left the locker room in a rush. Her hair was still drenched and her white blouse soaked through in some scandalous places.
"I'm fine. There was just a woman who was talking to me in the showers. She gave me a very bad feeling. Like I had to leave immediately, so I did." Mai sputtered out pulling back on her jacket to cover her still drying skin.
"A woman? What did she look like?" Madoka inquired guiding Mai further into the lobby then fluttered away to make her some tea.
"Um… well she had brown curly hair with green eyes, but uh… clearly not much else. She was taller than me and slender. Very beautiful actually." Mai explained blushing at her attempts at describing the naked woman.
"Hmm… brown curls and green ey- oh! That sounds like the young Williams girl." Madoka stated grimly her surprised expression quickly turning into an uneasy frown.
"She said her name was Marie. She knew my last name even though I only told her my first name. How much do these people know about me already?" Mai squeaked feeling the beginnings of a panic attack coming on.
'It's the same like with Kasai. They're watching me and stalking me.' Mai's thoughts roared when she felt a weight next to her on the couch. Naru grabbed both of her hands and guided her through their usual breathing exercises until she was able to calm down.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to spiral. It's just the stalking, knowing things about me that they shouldn't, and cornering me in spaces. It's just like Kasai." Mai whimpered out. Madoka was ready with a warm cup of tea that Mai was very grateful for.
"Mai. Do not worry. Ms. Williams and her father have been on our radar prior to our arrival to England. We knew their attempts to understand the purposes of our testing were going to be the most aggressive. However, we did not account for this much interference on day one." Lin chimed in. For once his imposing figure was more reassuring than intimidating.
"Recount the entire interaction." Naru ordered and Mai did just that, even down to the cold chill reverberating from the woman. She couldn't help the involuntary shiver that racked her body when remembering it.
"Mai, do you want to go home for the day? It's only the first day, so we can reschedule the consultation." Madoka offered graciously.
Mai considered her damp hair and near panic attack.
"No. We don't know what else the week will entail, so I'd like to keep whatever extra time in our schedule available. They can't shake me that easily." Mai responded angrily. She noticed that Naru was still holding onto one of her hands that she let slip back into her lap.
"Well said Mai. That fact that they're resorting to personal scare tactics means that some of our safe guards are working. Either that or Marie is more untamed than I was led to believe." Madoka agreed wholeheartedly.
"Indeed. Professor Grenzer has prepared a three-way video call between us and after lunch." Naru announced and Mai nodded.
"Lunch sounds divine. I could use a break honestly. Shall I grab something from the cafeteria?" Madoka suggested and Mai nodded eagerly. She hadn't realized how ravenous the work out and shower had made her. Mai moved to get up, but Madoka tutted her hands.
"You stay right here troublemaker. Lin and I will go pick something up for you two. Just like old times, right ?" Madoka looked over and winked. Lin only sighed and shook his head at the forward woman. After some brief conversations on the menu the two were off leaving the two alone in the lobby.
"This place has a lot of offices, but it seems like Madoka is the only one here." Mai commented while sipping her tea and looking around.
"Yes, Madoka has a team, but reassigned them all for the next two weeks to accommodate our tests. Before you say it Mai, you are not inconveniencing anyone. The younger SPR employees are often shuffled around when cases are conferences pull the leads away." Naru supplied while rising from the couch over to the shelf of books.
"Did you use to be on one of these teams?" Mai chuckled. She couldn't imagine him playing well with others.
'His teamwork grades in preschool were probably abysmal.' Mai thought letting her eyes fill with mirth.
"No, I was too young at the time I'd reached that level, so I accompanied my father on cases. Gene however was able to work with the other upstarts." Naru informed liberally. Mai was always fascinated when he spoke about himself freely. These moments were rare. She wondered if being back in England brought on fits of nostalgia in him.
"I dreamt about him yesterday before dinner." Mai confessed. She didn't need to look up from her teacup to know that he was looking at her.
"Really?" Was all he said as if he already knew it would happen.
"Yes. He fell out of a tree and it felt like he broke his arm. I think he used telepathy to call for you." Mai's eyes glazed over as she recalled the warm wind and his throbbing bones.
She could feel Naru getting closer to her.
"You said 'Stay put idiot, I'm coming to get you.' into his mind. Then he thought to himself…" Mai started but stopped herself.
'I shouldn't say it. It will hurt him.' Mai thought but felt Naru standing over her waiting. Her eyes began to water and she turned away from him.
The couch sank down beside her and she felt a hand on her knee. Mai looked at him and nearly sobbed. Naru was smiling at her sadly and gave her knee a squeeze.
"It's okay Mai. I want to hear about him." He said but it was no comfort to her with the expression he was wearing.
"Gene thought to himself that he was so happy to have a brother. And that he was happy he wasn't alone." Mai whispered and exhaled shakily.
She didn't want the tears to escape. It wasn't recounting the dream that Mai found particularly difficult.
No.
It was the realization that his house, his family, and probably even this office made it hard for Naru not to think of his brother.
England was her escape from the media, from all of her loss, and her encroaching responsibilities. But for Naru, all of those things were inescapable in England.
"Naru. I'm sorry. I'm so dense. I came here to run away from everything. I never even asked how this trip would make you feel. I know I've been staving off panic attacks left and right, but I can still sense how tense you've been. Are you okay?" Mai put her hand over his on her knee.
Was he okay?
It had been a while since anyone had asked him that kind of question. They only asked him these kinds of questions here in England. Last time he felt like this he threw himself into multiple research projects and completed his thesis. He was already deeply involved in the progress of Mai's professional diagnoses as well as fighting for her privacy on all fronts, foreign and domestic.
'I could also indulge father in his study of energy transfer. At the very least symbo-' Naru begin to spiral into research topics when he heard his assistant calling to him.
"Naru. We don't have to talk about how you're feeling right now. But just know, I'm here if you ever want to talk about it. Okay?" Mai spoke calmly and softly.
He looked at her and wondered how she dispelled his mental barriers so easily. She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek before reaching back to finish her tea before it got too cold.
Mai didn't need to hear the words to know he understood.
The consultation was very very awkward.
Mai's conversational English was great, but the number of technical terms that were thrown her way made her feel like the Japanese foreigner all over again. Not every concept and expression possessed a direct translation to Japanese. To make matters worse, Naru refused to translate. Mai couldn't tell if it was his pride, not wanting his associate to be seen looking lost in a technical discussion or his masochistic teaching style that made her put together the context clues.
Either way by the end of it, Mai was barely able to pick up the general idea of their joint hypothesis.
"So… they think my main powers are advanced astral walking and data absorption? " Mai whined from the back of the van.
"In layman's terms, but do not discount both doctors' thoughts on your ability to tune into different frequencies like a radio dial and translate the messages as instinctual inclinations." Naru indulged as the rain began to pour outside of the car.
Mai wasn't excited at the prospect of her hair getting wet again after it took all afternoon to dry from the locker room fiasco. Times like these made her remember why she kept it short most of her life.
But there was also added freedom in the all-powerful messy bun too.
"So, they basically want to see if they can turn my radio on and off? Then feed it different channels to see if I can understand it all?" Mai prodded and Naru hmmed his affirmative response.
"Well, my radio must be broken because that Marie girl walked right up on me in my birthday suit and I didn't perceive her as a threat before we were far too acquainted." Mai grumbled. Something about someone who was supposed to be her enemy knowing what she looked like naked made her uneasy.
"I'm sure if Ms. William's aim today was to physically harm you, you would have picked up on it right away." Lin supplied while turning up the wipers to the max. It was really pouring now.
"Right because I'm clearly not at all affected by psychological warfare." Mai complained again. Hearing herself out loud made her want to stop talking. She wasn't sure when she turned so moody, but Mai knew she likely needed another time zone adjusting nap.
Out of nowhere Mai felt her heart drop into her stomach.
Something bad was about to happen.
"LIN, STOP THE CAR!" Mai screamed and the omniyoji came to a screeching holt. The car behind him laid onto the horn and started cursing out their window.
"Mai, what's wrong?" Naru called back to her as the car behind them continued to lay on their horn in annoyance. Just as Mai was about to respond the sound of screeching tires sounded behind her. She threw open her car door recklessly and stomped directly in front of the lorry driver about to cut them off.
"Hey! What's the matter with you ? Got a death wish you stupid girl !" The irate driver squawked down to her from his window.
"No! Do you?!" Mai screamed right back.
Just as Naru was about to get out of the car to pull Mai back in, he could feel the ground vibrating beneath his feet. His eyes widened to look at the grade crossing directly in front of their car and noticed neither of the safety gates had lowered. The crossing bell was also completely silent.
Not one, but two trains passed the grade crossing in opposite directions at brake neck speeds. Neither even blowing their horns or slowing down until they had cleared the area completely.
Now Naru did jump out of the car.
The first thing he noticed was Mai's unwavering glare and the completely ashen faced truck driver planted behind them. Mai had likely saved all four of them from an untimely demised they escaped by only a few seconds.
"The train was coming you big dummy! Somebody call the police before this place kills somebody!" Mai yelled and stomped back into the car.
"It seems your radio is tuned just fine." Lin stated as he and Naru shared a look. The driver behind them volunteered to call the authorities. Mai sat back and shivered in her seat.
So much for staying dry.
Thank you so much for the warm welcome back :). Keep those awesome reviews coming ;)