Day 2
There were dark tire marks against the road.
They started out in a straight line then curved to the side suddenly, leading towards the metal railings that were broken and jagged around the open space the car had ran through over the edge of the road.
Mai tore her eyes away from the ominous scene and glanced down, her blood running cold with shock. There was a body at her feet, unmoving and awfully quiet. Her hand shakily reached out to his shoulder and she pulled him back, startled when she saw that his face was unnaturally pale and he was bleeding from his nose, mouth, and ears.
"NOOOOOO!" Mai shot up from her bedding, a scream tearing from somewhere deep within her heart.
There were hands on her shoulders, rubbing in a soothing manner. "It was just a dream."
"No," Mai sobbed against their shirt, clenching desperately at the fabric. It wasn't just a dream.
Martin Davis seemed like someone dependable and diligent. Although distraught with grief and the stress from flying, he had taken the time to brush his hair back neatly and put on nice clothing to meet his son's colleagues.
Even though he didn't seem to understand Japanese to the extent that Luella did, his blue eyes traveled from each person in the room when they spoke and listened in his own way. He sat at his wife's side quietly, offering a supporting hand to her when she grew emotional and giving her encouraging smiles whenever she glanced back at him.
Luella's mouth trembled as she spoke, her hands twisted together in her lap. "I studied for those two. They would speak in Japanese to each other. However, it is difficult. I can't speak it very well. I'm sorry."
Her words were a little hesitant and her sentences a little awkward to a native speaker, but amazing for someone who did not use Japanese every day.
"Do you understand me?" Luella asked, looking up from her hands.
"Your Japanese is very good." Masako reassured and drew a smile from the forlorn woman.
Luella seemed to be on the shorter side, with petite shoulders and a gentle touch with every movement. Even though she was grieving, the lingering traces of someone beautiful and graceful was evident in everything about her.
"Thank you for taking very good care of Oliver." Luella glanced towards where Madoka sat. "Madoka told me you all care for him."
Ayako stood, reaching for the woman's teacup. "I'll refresh your tea."
"Thank you."
Mai couldn't find anything to say to the woman, so she stayed quiet for most of the conversation, not wanting to intrude. So when the violet eyes of Luella turned to her as she addressed her, she wasn't expecting it.
"You must be... Taniyama-san." Luella said though it sounded more like a question.
"Yes. That's me." Mai confirmed and took notice of the slow way she pronounced her surname. "Um, you can call me Mai."
"Mai. You are Oliver's... ah." She struggled to find the word.
"Assistant." Mai said in English, drawing a surprised look from the woman and her husband.
"Yes. Thank you for caring for Oliver. He can be very serious so it can be difficult for others." Luella said with a gentle smile.
Mai cracked a smile of her own, unable to help it. "He can be very difficult."
Luella laughed at this before she said, "But he's a good child."
"I know." Mai nodded.
Martin observed her a little closer, suddenly speaking. "You speak English, Ms. Taniyama."
"A bit. We learn English in school." Mai smiled sheepishly and motioned towards John. "My friend, uh, helps me. Um..." She hesitated before bowing her head to them. "I'm sorry for your loss."
Martin nodded in acknowledgement and Luella pulled something square from her pocket, running her fingers over it gently. "This... I'm very proud." She whispered and handed over the object to Mai, whose eyes widened upon seeing what it was.
It was a small card sized picture frame with a photo of two young boys standing side by side, identical in almost every way. They both looked around the age of eleven and were the same height, standing against a brick wall. Gene was easy to spot of course, by the gentle expression and the bright yellow rain coat he wore. Naru was just as noticeable, unlike how he was now he was wearing jeans and colours but still looked much less casual than his counterpart with a knit sweater pulled over a collared shirt.
Mai pointed to each boy, smiling fondly. "Naru and Gene."
"Yes!" Luella chuckled through her tears, wiping them away with her handkerchief. "You can tell."
"Naru always frowns. Even when he is happy." Mai replied without thinking, entranced by the picture.
Luella blinked and took in the reminiscent expression on the young girls face. "You know him well."
Mai looked up, her cheeks going warm. "I— j-just a bit."
"I wish... you could know Eugene too." Luella suddenly said, her expression twisting in grief. "Gene would fit here well."
Suddenly feeling choked up, Mai handed the picture frame back to Luella with a wavering smile and then made her way from the cabin after saying her goodbye. She didn't feel like it would be right to cry in front of Gene's parents.
Mai was not a stranger to loss and mourning. Her dad died when she was ten and although she was young, she was not too young to not understand what death was. She knew her dad was no longer with them in this world and it took a long time to process it fully. But she witnessed the immediate effect his death had on her mom.
Mai would lay awake at night listening to her mom's cries that were so painful they sounded as if they came from somewhere deep within her chest, like she had a piece of her heart ripped out. She would watch as her mom just floated through her days like she was a spectator in her own body, completely void of the cheerful person Mai knew as her mom.
Her mom healed eventually but by then the world decided that it would take all of her this time, leaving Mai alone in this world when she was thirteen years old.
That was the first time Mai understood what it felt like to have a piece of you ripped out by grief. Her mom had protected her well enough from her dad's death that she hadn't felt the full effects of it, but when her mom passed there was no longer anyone in this world to do that for her.
Grief was like a black hole that opened up at the center of your universe, sucking in everything it could and never returning it.
Mai had never been part of Gene's universe before that blackhole opened and she was struggling with the sense of loss she felt, even more so now that she was meeting people who were at the dead center of Gene's blackhole.
Martin and Luella knew Gene. They raised and loved Gene. While Mai... Mai knew him briefly from dreams. Mai had never met Gene when he was alive and the thought that she never got to know him when he was complete made her conflicted about whether she really knew him at all.
"Mai." Lin called out to her as he approached the cabin.
Mai wiped at her face, trying to wipe away any signs of crying. "Lin, where have you been?"
"I was trying to find Naru. I haven't seen him all morning." Lin told her as he came to a stop, looking out into the trees and she sensed that he was purposefully not looking at her to allow her more time to compose herself. "He has not been eating or sleeping."
"Is that really surprising?" Mai asked quietly and although that had been her attempt at sarcasm her misery made the question come out flat.
"No, I suppose not." Lin replied and lifted his eyes up as he thought back. "After over a year here, I guess I should realize this is his new normal. I can't remember the last time he practiced his Qigong routine."
Mai's eyes widened slightly, turning to face him. "His routine? Like the one you gave me?"
"Yes. Naru had a strict physical routine he used to do every morning. He also had a diet and healthy eating habits that he has not been mindful off since we came to Japan." Lin frowned as he thought of his young boss's pale and grim appearance. "He is not an innately unhealthy person."
Lin's words struck Mai further into her pit of despair because the thought that maybe she never really knew Naru when he was complete as well hit her too. She only met Naru after losing his twin brother had ripped something from his heart and turned him into someone unfamiliar to those who knew him when he was whole.
Maybe Mai would never get to know Naru at all, considering he was going to be leaving.
Day 3
She had nightmare after nightmare all night. They were actually dreams this time, though based cruelly on visions of Naru's death that became even more twisted and dark every time she slept.
She gave up on trying to fall back asleep after she woke up for the third time in a cold sweat, crying pitifully in Ayako's arms. Ayako deserved to sleep too, so Mai pretended she drifted back into unconsciousness long enough to convince Ayako to go back to bed and instead just laid awake staring at the ceiling for the rest of the night.
She gave up on trying to contact Gene too, seeing that he would not answer.
"You look terrible." Masako commented as they both left the cabin.
The prickle of the hot sun against her face only made Mai self-conscious that her dark under eyes were more prominent, something Masako confirmed with her very delicate comment.
"Thanks." Mai gave her a flat look, not having the energy to shoot one back at her.
Masako of course, looked as beautiful as ever.
The two teen girls made light conversation as they walked through the path of the forest towards the road, where they would begin a short downward trek to the bottom of the hill where the diving team and police had made a base in the open space where the land met the water.
The search for Gene's body had gathered a crowd of curious onlookers who lived in the town nearby and the size of the crowd had grown twice of what it was yesterday.
The two of them stopped on the outskirts of the crowd, not wanting to draw attention to themselves.
"They seem to be focusing on that one area." Masako pointed out quietly and Mai looked at the team of divers in the water.
There was a boat floating above the area and the divers would occasionally come back up, report something, and then head back down into the murky water for another search. The whole day yesterday they seemed to be combing through different areas of the lake but since late evening, they were staying in one general area.
They're getting close, Mai thought and felt her stomach clench uncomfortably.
"Do you... do you know when they're going to find him?" Masako asked hesitantly, peeking at her from the corner of her eyes.
Many of the SPR team members had been asking her similar tentative questions, naturally curious about the future. Mai's answers were usually disappointing though, considering that from this point on she had just as much knowledge about what was going to happen as they did.
Mai shook her head. "No. The last case ended much quicker than it did in my vision, so the events have changed too much to rely on it but..." Mai placed her hand against her chest. "Soon, I believe."
The two of them watched for a few more minutes before the dark haired girl scanned the crowd for the familiar figure of their boss. Her brows furrowed inwards, concerned. "I don't see Naru. I didn't see him at all yesterday either."
Mai moved closer to Masako, pulling on her arm. "Let's go."
Masako glanced back and saw that Mai's face had lost some of its colour. "Okay."
The two of them walked back up the road until they made it to the area where Bou-san had pulled over the first time they arrived. The wooden sign indicating the path to the campsite came into view and they began walking through the trees in silence.
Masako glanced back when the other girl started to slow down, eventually coming to a stop in the middle of the path behind her. "Mai?"
Mai swallowed, feeling ill. "I need a moment. Y-you can go on ahead."
"You sure?" Masako asked and hesitated before eventually turning and continuing to walk back to the cabins.
Mai could feel her stomach turning and ran off the path into the trees further, bending over with her hand around her middle. She got sick and let out an anguished moan, spitting out the taste in her mouth.
"Urgh." She wiped her mouth with her sleeve and stood up.
"Are you okay?" A voice asked from somewhere behind her and Mai spun around, her eyes darting left and right.
Ahead of her a few feet away, she could see Naru leaning against a tree with his back to her.
"I'm fine." Mai cringed, embarrassed that he heard her getting sick. "I don't think my lunch set well." She lied and walked towards him. He briefly glanced over his shoulder at her before turning away as she neared. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you since the first day we got here."
Naru replied after a brief pause. "I've been around."
"Hmm." Mai hummed as she turned, resting her back against the other side of the tree he was leaning on. She didn't want to face him and have him see her dark under eyes. "Everyone's been looking for you."
"I know." He said quietly.
Mai waited, unsure if he had more to say. When he remained quiet, she started talking. "I met your parents. They are really nice."
"Yes." Naru agreed.
"She, uh— your mother showed me a photo of you and your brother when you were younger." Mai told him and smiled lightly as she remembered the young faces in the frame. "The two of you were cute."
"Hmm." He let out a puff of air from his nose, letting her know that he was amused. "Gene was always the cuter one."
Mai's smile dropped slowly as she thought about Gene. "Can you tell me about him? I'd like to know." Silence filled the air around them and Mai shifted uncomfortably. "You don't have to speak about him if it's too soon—"
"The two of you would have been very good friends." Naru suddenly said and Mai's mouth clamped shut at his words, not expecting them. "He complained a lot about his duties at BSPR. The part of ghost hunting he liked was being able to help others but I think... I think if he had the chance to be here, with you and everyone else, then he would never complain."
His words didn't hurt her as she thought they would, and instead she found comfort in them.
"He would've fit in well with all of us." Mai sniffled and wiped at her tears. "Sometimes, I forget that he's not actually here with us. I just instinctively associate him with the team."
"He would like that." Naru nodded and he hesitated before saying, "Please, continue to think of him that way."
"I will." Mai said instantly and waited for him to continue. She felt like he had more on his mind and it was rare that he ever spoke so openly, especially about Gene, so she wanted to give him the time to speak.
"I have a lot to say before I leave..." He paused. "But I don't know how to put it into words."
Mai glanced down. "You don't have to force yourself to say it right now."
"Give me a moment." Naru replied.
Mai waited, staring down at her tennis shoes digging into the dirt at the base of the tree.
The tone of their conversation gave her the sense of a final goodbye and she didn't say it, but she needed a moment to think too. She didn't know what to say to Naru. She didn't know how to say goodbye or how to express how sorry she was to him. She didn't know how to tell him that he was fated to die. But Naru didn't know how to say it either and he was still trying, so she would do her best too.
Naru let out a long breath, then started. "Sometimes I wonder, if I have ever actually known you truly."
Mai's eyes widened in shock, her heart twisting painfully.
"It's a concern of mine that in the short time we spent together that maybe the true you, without everything I've burdened you with, has gotten lost. I find myself wondering about the version of you that was just an unknowing girl who accidentally stumbled upon a camera." He continued, voice quieter than ever but filled with emotion she never heard before. "I am sorry, Mai. For everything. I wish you could forgive me for my selfishness."
Mai's mouth parted but he started speaking before she could get the words out.
"And don't you dare tell me you forgive me, because you still do not know the full extent of the trouble I caused for you." He spat the words out bitterly, like he was angry with himself. "I regret it now that I know but... you are the only one who would have been able to do it. I believe in you, Mai. I truly do."
"Naru?" Mai furrowed her brows, now confused about the context of his words.
"I do not know what is worse. Thinking this is the last time we will see each other... or thinking this won't be." Naru laughed softly and it was such an unfamiliar sound from him. "I will miss you dearly, Mai."
Mai's hair whipped against her face as she spun, looking behind her to see him. She froze, her mouth falling open.
He was gone.
Mai circled around the tree, finding no sign of him. "Naru?"
Then, she looked up and saw him. Naru was walking towards her from the path, in the direction she had been facing just moments before she spun around.
"W-what?" Mai circled around the tree once more and then glanced back at his figure. "How did you get over there?"
Naru frowned, indigo eyes taking in the distressed expression she wore. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, how did you get over there!" Mai exclaimed and then felt realization hit her like a truck. Her hands came to her forehead, pushing her hair out of her face and she blinked. "Am I... awake?"
"Well, I'm speaking to you." Naru replied flatly as he came to a stop in front of her. "What's wrong?"
"I... I was just speaking with you." Mai faltered and her voice wavered. "Or at least, I thought it was you."
Naru paused before his face fell blank once more. "Gene."
Mai nodded, rubbing at her sore eyes. "He said this might be the last time he would see me... I think he was saying his goodbyes."
"He came to see me too." Naru said and walked by her, coming to lean on the other side of the tree, exactly in the same position his brother had been in moments before.
Mai glanced back before leaning against the tree again. "He came to see you?"
"This morning." Naru answered and thought back to how he had been brushing his teeth when suddenly his reflection in the mirror shifted and he knew that he was staring at his dead twin brother. "I haven't been able to contact him since I came to Japan."
Mai dug her foot into the dirt as they spoke. "Did you say your goodbyes?"
Naru remembered how the two of them had been arguing and Naru raised his voice so loud that Lin burst into the bathroom in a panic, believing someone was in there with him. "Something like that." He answered, lips curving upwards wryly.
Mai gathered herself, sucking in a deep breath. Her goodbye with Gene left her with a lot to say and Bou-san's words to her from the night before were replaying in her mind. If Naru hated her, then she couldn't control how he felt but she needed to lay it all out in the open regardless.
"Naru, I have something to tell you."
Naru's shoulders slumped forward, sighing. It was never good when she said that. "Can't we just stand here?"
"No." Mai shook her head. "I have to tell you otherwise I will regret it."
"Fine."
"Did... did Gene tell you anything about my vision when he came to see you this morning?" Mai asked hesitantly.
Naru went quiet. "He tried to. I ended up doing most of the... talking." AKA Naru had unleashed his fury upon Gene for his meddling.
"I think he was trying to tell you why he sent that vision to me." Mai started to say and wrung her hands together nervously, feeling ill. "Um... the reason for the vision. It was a warning."
"I know."
Mai's eyebrows shot up. "You know?"
Naru glanced back, meeting her eyes as she turned at the same time. "I do. I didn't realize you knew."
Mai felt confused and turned to fully face him, tilting her head. He was looking at her like she was a puzzle, seeming genuinely shocked that she knew. "So was I worrying for nothing? Does Gene know that you know?"
Naru shook his head slowly, feeling unsure as he took in her body language and confused eyes. "He seemed... distraught when I told him."
"Distraught?" Mai repeated. Well, he would be distraught by his brother's death but Naru's wording didn't make sense. Mai could feel that something about their conversation wasn't matching up. "Naru, you know that you are supposed to die?"
Naru physically recoiled from her, his eyes widening as he took a step back. "What?"
Mai felt her blood go cold, regret immediately filling her when she realized that it was news to him. "You... are supposed to die. Y-you knew that, right?!"
"No, that's not right." He shook his head.
Mai swallowed. "I'm sorry, Naru."
He narrowed his gaze at her and stepped closer so he could see her eyes. "How do you know for sure?" He watched her expression twist unpleasantly.
"I've seen it." Mai whispered and his face started to blur as her eyes filled with tears.
His whole demeanor shifted and he stumbled a bit to the side. He placed his hand against the tree beside hers, seeming to be in deep thought as he processed her words. "When?" He finally asked, still not looking up.
"I'm not sure." Mai answered. "I just know that it is because of that woman."
She watched him take in a shaky breath, his fingers digging into the tree. "I understand, now." He said to himself quietly before his hand shot out and grabbed hold of hers.
"What—" Her words cut off as he yanked her closer to him, so close she could feel his breath on her face.
Naru's gaze burned through her with the intensity of it as he looked up, determined. "Mai, I need to tell you something. And I want you to listen to me, okay?"
Dread filled her suddenly, churching her stomach and making her feel ill once again.
Lin had said to her in the hospital that he believed Naru knew something she didn't, and she knew this was the moment he was going to tell her what it was. And she wasn't going to like it. Her fingers unintentionally curled around his, needing some sort of support. Her eyes traveled down to his lips, focused intently on the words that started to leave his mouth.
"The day we met, you fainted. You dropped something."
Red flashed through her mind. She nodded in understanding. "My clip."
"When I picked it up, I saw vision. It was of you, with long hair and—"
"Naru!" Lin's voice called out to him from behind them.
"Shit!" Naru cursed under his breath, spinning around to glance at the older male with a furious expression. "Lin, not now. We need a moment."
Lin stared at the two teenagers, his breaths coming out quickly like he had just been running. He straightened, eyes somber. "They found him."
Naru stilled, his fingers tightening around Mai's.
There was a long quiet moment as Lin just stared at the two of them, waiting for one of them to respond. Mai let out a shaky breath and started to pull away from Naru but he spun back around, looking at her intently.
"I will be right back." He said quietly.
Mai blinked, tears falling down her cheeks. "Okay."
"Don't move from here."
"Okay."
"Mai." Naru stressed her name, trying to grab her attention once more. He bent down, fingers painfully gripping hers as he came to her eye level. "I will be right back so wait for me, do you understand?"
Mai nodded. "I understand."
He hesitated, slowly releasing her before he turned and rushed towards Lin. The two of them exchanged a few words before they started down the path towards the road, where they would be heading down to the water to identify Gene's body. Mai watched their figures grow smaller through the trees and when they were no longer in her line of sight, she collapsed into the dirt with a sob.
Lin reached for the yellow tape blocking off the area, ducking under it and holding it up for Naru.
When the younger boy didn't follow immediately, he turned his head. "Naru?"
Naru stared up the road, his eyes looking in the direction of the campsite where he had left Mai minutes before. Lin called his name again with more urgency and Naru forced himself to turn away, despite everything in his body willing him to run back to the brown haired girl. He ducked under the police tape and his eyes instantly fell upon the yellow lump on the ground.
He would do this quickly, and then go back.
It took her a while to compose herself.
She heard the commotion that the rest of the SPR team had made as they hurried down the path towards the road. It seemed that the news that Gene's body was found had made it back to them and they were rushing down to the water. She heard them asking each other frantically where she was but Mai was too distraught to call out to them and instead just stayed curled up against the tree out of sight.
She couldn't bring herself to go see just yet.
Her legs were shaky as she pushed herself to stand, using the tree for support to hold herself up. She straightened to her full height with a long breath in, pushing her hair out of her face before the colour red flickered across her vision, just for a brief moment.
Mai stilled, squinting through the trees to catch another glimpse of it. It was right there. Her feet moved forward like she was on autopilot, her eyes latched onto the bright colour as it grew bigger the closer she got towards the road.
"Don't move from here. I will be right back so wait for me."
She came to a stop and the dirt crunched beneath her shoes. Naru's dark eyes were clear in her mind, telling her to stay. She hesitated to take another step forward, like her feet were glued to the ground, and she placed her hand against her chest.
"What do I do?" She whispered into the air.
Her intuition was telling her to stay but something else was urging her forward, like she was supposed to go.
Her feet started moving once more, taking her to the road. She stumbled over a root sticking out of the dirt and steadied herself on one of the nearby trees, kicking at the obtrusion and freeing herself. She took another step and then stopped, turning back in frustration as her sleeve caught against a branch sticking out of a bush. She clenched her teeth together and yanked.
"Let me go!" She snapped at it and then fell back as the twig broke under her weight. "Great! Look what you did..." Her sentence trailed off as she looked up and finally saw the road through the tree line and the object of her strange fixation was clear in her line of sight.
Underneath the sun, parked on the side of the road with dark tinted windows, was a red car.
"Naru, where are going?" Lin called after him, watching as he ducked under the tape and pushed through the crowd of people.
Lin glanced down at the covered body that he had identified moments before as Gene and then back up, eyes attached Naru's back as he rushed away.
Mai fumbled for her phone with trembling fingers.
The car was turned off and although she couldn't see through the tinted windows, she hoped that the occupants of the car were not in it at the moment. She hoped that everything she learned about murders from the movies was true. She hoped if the owner of this red car was really the women who killed Gene, that she had returned to the crime scene, and Mai would have this chance to get the license plate.
This might just be the car of another local, curious about the diving team and the commotion of the search for Gene. There were tons of red cars in Japan, so there was a very slim chance that this red car belonged to the women. But Mai wasn't going to ignore that slim chance and possibly let it slip through her fingers, and that is the only reason she ignored every instinct in her body telling her to run away and crept onto the road.
Her feet shuffled closer as she made a wide circle around the car to get a good view of the front from a distance away. She just wanted to capture the picture of the license plate and then leave immediately. She lifted her phone with shaky hands, struggling to open the camera app while glancing up at the car every second to make sure there were no changes.
Her camera app started and she saw the view of her feet on the road in the screen, then watched it readjust focus as she lifted it slowly to the red car.
The gutter of the engine came to life and Mai let out a gasp, her phone falling to the ground in front of her at the pure shock the sound sent through her body.
Someone was in the car.
The wheels begin rolling, crushing gravel and dirt beneath it rolled further away from her. Any normal person would have rolled down their window and asked what she was doing but they were backing up, as if to make an escape. Mai watched with bated breath as the car stopped a good distance away, seeming to wait.
It was her... wasn't it?
Her mind started to reel and her body didn't respond fast enough as she willed it to reach down and grab her phone. As she bent, the image of Naru's unmoving body on the ground flashed through her mind.
Naru was supposed to be here right now, she thought. In her dream, he had been here to find the car and it had cost him his life. This was the moment Naru was supposed to die. Which meant—phone forgotten as Mai swung around, hair slapping against her cheeks, her eyes landed on the very boy she was hoping she wouldn't see.
Naru was standing in the middle of the road behind her, panting out his breaths as he looked at her with wide eyes.
Mai screamed at him desperately, motioning for him to run.
The reeve of the car's engine had her swinging around to it and her eyes landed on the black marks the tires made against the road as it shot forward. She realized in that moment, why Naru had died in her dream. He hadn't been hit or run over. He had used his PK to divert the car from hitting him. Her lips parted as she turned back to Naru, screaming for him once again.
"Naru, don't!" Her voice was hoarse as she reached out uselessly, watching with dread as he moved into the same position he took when he destroyed Okobu-sama, with his palm facing the ground and his other hand wrapped around his wrist for support as he gathered his PK.
The screech of the tires behind her was loud in her ears as she watched the air around him flex, becoming denser and filling the space around them.
Something familiar brushed against her senses and she felt a whisper against her ear, soft and urging. "Mai." Gene's voice coaxed her. Unlike the time in the cave, her consciousness remained as she relaxed into his presence as it surrounded her completely, letting him guide her body and spirit.
Something between the three made contact, like a loose string, before it snapped tight as the line connected fully and opened her up to Naru in a way she had never experienced before.
The foreign energy he sent at her invaded her and like a blackhole, she absorbed his entire being and senses. She felt his panic, his fear, his intentions, and his wavelength all at once. Then, in the split second it happened she understood the disconnect between Naru and his PK. His wavelength was slower than that of his PK. His PK was like a wild, unstopping heartbeat, picking up pace the more it grew. Naru's wavelength was a steady calming rhythm.
Naru's physical being and his spiritual energy didn't match up.
Like it was an instinct ingrained in her human nature, Mai adjusted accordingly. She slowed the fast pace of his PK down until it matched the wavelength she felt through the line connecting her and Naru and sent it back to him twice fold.
He adjusted and Mai watched him lift his glowing hands above his head before swinging them down with all his might. The burst of energy shot from him, sending him stumbling back from the force of it and it hurled in her direction. She turned her head just in time to see the bright red car jerk abruptly to the left with a screech, before spinning in a circle. She fell back with wide eyes as the back of the car just barely missed her before it came to a complete halt.
Mai looked up and the way the sun was hitting the tinted windows allowed her to see the silhouette of a women in the driver's seat. The side profile of the women was that of someone with a high nose bridge, curving out at the end sharply. Her lips were parted and she seemed to be hunched over the steering wheel. Although Mai could not see her expression, she could see in her body language that she was shocked.
The dark silhouette turned and Mai realized that she was staring at her.
A long agonizing second passed where Mai just stared back at the shadowy figure, wondering what the woman's next move was going to be.
Then a cloud passing over the sun blocked the sunlight from penetrating the dark tint and the outline of the women disappeared behind the glass. The engine screeched to life once more and her car began speeding back up the road, leaving behind the smell of gas and burnt rubber.
Mai's had snapped back to look at Naru, where he was standing in the middle of the road and looking at the departing red car with wide eyes. Then he blinked and turned to look at her, his shoulders dropping before he fell to his knees. Mai scrambled up, her heart beating in her ears wildly as she ran towards him screaming his name.
"Naru!" She sobbed as she reached his fallen figure, dropping down in front of him. She grabbed his shoulders and tried to pull him up, but he just slumped into her with his forehead resting in the croak of her neck. "Get up! You have to get help!" She tried to shove him off, tears falling down her cheeks. "Naru!"
His hand reached up, wrapping around her wrist. "I'm not hurt."
Mai shook her head, hysteric. "You collapsed! You must be—"
"My legs gave out because I'm relieved, Mai." Naru laughed breathlessly and she sucked in a sharp breath, recoiling from him as he lifted his head. "I'm relieved that you're alive."
Mai stilled as she stared into his sure eyes, her panic fading away. "Me...?" She asked. "But you were the one going to die."
"No." His other hand grabbed her free wrist, trapping her in front of him. "You were the one who was going to die."
She paused. That car had been coming for her. "But Gene said..."
"Gene was right, but so am I." Naru told her seriously, his fingers tightening. "What I was trying to tell you earlier was that I saw you, with longer hair, standing in the middle of this road with that red car behind you. I saw that vision the very first time I met you, Mai."
"What?" Breathless, Mai tried to pull away as she processed his words.
Naru didn't let her go, holding her still in front of him. "Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?"
That car had been coming for her.
In her dream, Mai arrived when this whole situation had already happened. She didn't know when Naru's death would happen because she wasn't present in the dream. This time, he didn't collapse and die because Mai arrived before him. If Naru had not seen that vision, then she probably wouldn't be alive at that very moment.
"How?" She asked quietly.
"We talk about it all the time, the repercussions for changing fated events." Naru was saying to her, his hands around her wrists loosening as she came to full realization. "Gene saved my life by sending you that vision, but it came at the cost of your own."
Gene's smiling face twisted her heart and she swallowed down the tears. "D-did he know?"
"No." Naru denied firmly, shaking his head. "He found out only this morning, when he came to see me."
"I am sorry, Mai. For everything. I wish you could forgive me for my selfishness." Gene's words to her suddenly made sense. He had sounded so bitter and regretful as he said it, and she thought he was apologizing for sending her the dream, and while it was partially part of it, he was mostly apologizing to her for changing her future for the worst.
Every time Mai thought about the end of the dream, which she could not remember, she felt pain and dread and so she avoided thinking about it too much. After she found out about Naru's fated death she thought she understood why, but now... now she realized it was because her intuition was screaming at her, trying to warn her to stay away.
Over Naru's shoulder she saw movement as someone rounded the curve in the road, their hands cupped around their mouth as they yelled. "Naru!" Lin called, looking left and right before his eyes stopped on the two of them. His hands dropped in shock at their disheveled appearances and started to run towards them. "What happened?! Are you two okay?"
Naru stood to address him and Mai remained on the road, staring blankly ahead of her as her mind reeled with the revelation of everything. Even as Lin tried to grab her attention, she could only nod numbly without really hearing his words. She felt arms wrap around her, pulling her up and starting to walk.
Mai spent the last year and a half believing that she was playing God, changing fate and molding the future without knowing she was working herself further and further into the embrace of her own fated death.
