AN: Thank you so much for the great response! I'm totally thrilled Anyway, sorry in advance for the cliffhanger; I had to cut it there or the chapter would have been about 20 pages long…
Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt.
Chapter 2 – Airport Revelations
-0O0-
Naru had no idea how this had happened. Here he was, standing in the Heathrow airport's arrival terminal, waiting for two – no, four – strangers. His father stood beside him, practically bouncing with anticipation. Naru rolled his eyes heavenward – Martin Davis was far too old to be visibly bouncing with excitement.
And of course, another bouncing paranormal investigator flanked Naru (as if making sure he couldn't wander away). Madoka actually seemed more excited than Martin. Which was mystifying. Madoka was an easily excitable woman, Naru knew – but her original reaction to the news of the transfer inductees had been normal. Then all of a sudden, she became practically giddy with glee about the Tokyo University students and had insisted on accompanying the Davises to the airport. She also insisted that he, Naru, be present for their arrival. And of course, his excited father and obliging mother had succumbed to Madoka's negotiating magic.
But the strangest add-on was Lin. Lin, who barely left SPR's offices to sleep, was waiting here at the airport. Naru knew that Madoka and Lin were not-so-secretly dating, and he didn't even want to think about the sadistic methods that Madoka could use on her boyfriend to secure his presence at Heathrow, but... Madoka didn't have to convince Lin to come. Lin WANTED to come to the airport.
Naru covertly glanced around the terminal. Just in case the world was coming to an end.
-0O0-
Three days earlier…
-0O0-
"Hullo, Martin!" Madoka sang as she waltzed into Dr. Davis' office. "I have a couple of case wrap-ups for you to look at," she continued, pulling thick pink file folders out of her bag. She looked up at her mentor, as he hadn't greeted her yet.
Martin was once again reading through the paper from his two new students, this time marking it up with notes and questions. He finally looked up as Madoka's shadow loomed over the paper.
"Oh, hello, Madoka," he replied cheerily. He noticed the bright pink folders. "Oh, yes, the files. Just put them in my inbox, I'll look at them as soon as I've finished."
"Hmm," Madoka's nosiness came out in full force. "Whatcha reading?"
"A paper by those two students I told you I've found," Martin replied, smiling proudly, "I'm reading it for the sixth time. I'm just writing down some questions I would like to ask them once they've arrived in England."
"Arrived in England?" Madoka repeated curiously. "Where are they coming from?"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you! They're from Japan – your own home country, of course! They are both undergraduates at Tokyo University."
"Todai?" Madoka used its nickname. "Wow. One wonderful school to another."
"Yes," Martin said, "And one of them is a potential SPR subject. Definitely a psychic, and she seems to be both powerful and versatile."
"Oh?"
"Yes, uses PK-MT, can see spirits, has post-cognitive dreams, and according to this…" Professor Davis waved the paper, "She can manipulate her spiritual aura. I can't wait until they get here."
Madoka nodded, her own inner researcher happy. Then she remembered. Both Yasu and Mai went to Todai – and Mai had post-cognitive dreams! Madoka still corresponded with Yasu, but they had been too busy to really talk lately. Yasu had said that Mai's powers were 'getting cooler by the day' and that he and Mai had big news – but Madoka had been afraid to ask what the news was. Yasu and Mai spent a lot of time together, and Madoka was worried that it would be a relationship announcement. And that would be terrible for Noll.
Madoka was no fool. She knew that Noll had feelings for his former assistant. No matter how many times he denied it to Madoka, pretended he couldn't hear her, or outright yelled at her to leave it alone, Madoka had seen the less-than-apathetic looks Noll gave Mai when she wasn't looking. She knew that Noll threw himself into danger without a thought when Mai needed help. She knew that SOMETHING had happened between them the night before Noll left Japan. (She never could figure out what, though. Lin didn't know, either.) And she saw how much freer and more… content Noll was in Japan. Especially when Mai was around.
Especially especially when there was tea. When Mai brought Noll tea, Noll's whole manner would change. His body would relax imperceptibly, and he would appear at peace with the world – and 'Noll' and 'at peace' were usually mutually exclusive terms.
Madoka didn't know if Noll realized it – he was after all, as Gene used to say, an idiot scientist. But he had feelings for Mai Taniyama, deep ones, in Madoka's opinion. And he needed to come to terms with them eventually, so that he could track Mai down and tell her. And embrace her passionately. And date her. And propose to her. And marry her. And have lots of little psychic babies. That she could be godmother to. And Madoka would tell the children stories about their parents – embarrassing ones, cute ones, it would be…
"Madoka, come back from Fairyland," her mentor requested loudly. Madoka pulled her thoughts away from story time and back into the office.
"Sorry, boss," she replied abashedly. Then she remembered the Tokyo University conversation.
"Martin," she asked, "What are their names?" She held her breath.
"Oh, yes," Martin Davis smiled, not even having to look it up anymore, "Mai Taniyama and Osamu Yasuhara."
The master ghost hunter squealed.
"Madoka?" Martin asked, looking at his former student as if she'd lost it.
"Oh! I, uh, just think those sound like great names! Great names for parapsychology students!" Madoka covered (badly), not wanting to give them away just yet.
If Martin didn't realize who his new students were – in relation to Noll – then she wasn't going to tell him. She couldn't jeopardize this chance to get the emotionally constipated Oliver Davis and the effervescent Mai Taniyama back in the same country. For an extended period of time. Oh, the possibilities!
Martin was still looking at her strangely.
"Fine, you caught me, I just remembered that Lin and I have a date tonight," Madoka lied (better), smiling at her employer/mentor. She even giggled.
Martin harrumphed, smiling slightly. "Well, don't let me keep you," he said, pulling the case folders out of the inbox.
"I am also excited that the students are coming from Japan," Madoka added, another fantastic possibility popping into her brain. "Martin, do they speak proper English? Maybe I should come with you to the airport, or Noll, maybe, in order to facilitate the introductions."
Martin remembered telling everyone that he was going to pick the teens up at the airport. He remembered Madoka thinking that this was a good plan, one that would show the students he was excited to have them in the program. But… "Taniyama and Yasuhara report that they both speak English well," Martin replied. "Yasuhara especially. He was responsible for a lot of this report's grammar."
Madoka's face fell.
"Taniyama is bringing her adoptive father and his fiancée with her," Martin continued. "They want to be here for a while with Taniyama, making sure everything's alright. Yasuhara and Taniyama will be dorming in campus housing when term starts, but in the meantime, the four of them will be renting an apartment in London."
Her adoptive father and his fiancée… that meant that Bou-san and Ayako were coming. This just kept getting better and better.
"However…" Martin paused. "The adopted parents do speak English, but I don't know how fluently. So, yes, I think that having you there might be very helpful. Good show, Madoka."
Madoka grinned in triumph. But… "And Noll? You said that he actually seems interested in the research opportunity. Why not drag him with us and make him really part of it all?"
Cue Madoka Mori's winning smile.
Martin nodded, pleased at the idea of his son being 'really a part of it all.' He'd become so distant, even while researching…
"I think that's doable, Madoka," he replied, earning a thousand-watt grin from his former student. "You'll need to convince him, you can do it."
"Of course, Martin," Madoka replied, scheming already. I'll just appeal to Luella! "Don't you worry, I'll have Noll there."
She flounced out, breaking into a race walk. She had to get out of Martin's hearing range to use her cell phone. Wait until Lin heard this!
-0O0-
Back at the airport…
-0O0-
Naru sighed. Again.
Luella tsked behind him. "Noll, stop sighing already. We don't want the new students to think you don't like them."
Naru rolled his eyes again. "Mother, I do not care what they think about me. Why am I here again?"
Madoka turned to him and grinned. "Because you should be."
Naru glared. "And why is that?"
Madoka only grinned secretively, which irritated Naru even more. On the other side of Madoka, Lin shifted a bit.
"Because we should be," Lin repeated, earning a smile from Madoka and a mystified stare from Naru. Naru opened his mouth to speak, and –
"Martin," Luella said suddenly, "You've never told us their names. How are we going to greet them without knowing their names?"
Madoka sucked in a breath beside Naru.
Absolutely positive that something fishy was going on, Naru turned to his adopted father to hear the answer.
"Oh, of course!" Martin said, slapping his forehead, "I'm sorry. I told Madoka the other day; I hadn't realized that I never told the rest of you."
"Father, now's a good time," Naru intoned, clearly suspicious.
"Yes, yes," Martin replied. His wife glared. "Sorry, darling. The students are named Yasuhara Osamu and Mai Taniyama. And her adoptive parents are called Takigawa Houshou and Ayako Matsuzaki."
Naru thought… Naru had no thoughts. For a full five seconds, his brain was on autopilot. Somewhere inside, some vulgar part of him was screaming silent obscenities. And then he came back to Earth – when a snap! went off next to him.
He turned, still shocked, to see Madoka taking pictures with her cell phone camera. She took another picture as he fully faced her, his eyes wide and face ashen. She actually cackled.
"That was great! Sooo worth it, and now your moment of emotional openness is immortalized for the future!" She grinned and then – as if worried that Naru would take the phone – stowed it quickly in her cavernous bag.
He wouldn't have. He was not recovered enough for such measures. Naru's mind reeled, one name resounding in his head. Mai Taniyama… Mai… Mai was coming here.
Taniyama Mai was… walking through the gate.
-0O0-
A bit earlier…
-0O0-
Mai and Takigawa sighed simultaneously. They were in hour seven of their seemingly endless flight to England, and they had already played through a book of Sudoku, meditated, and played a few games of "I Spy." Yasu, of course, was unflappable as always, busily reading Naru's latest book on residual hauntings. Ayako had been napping, but had been accidentally jostled awake by Takigawa. Which sucked, because now she was really irritable.
"The two of you had better find something quieter to do," the cranky shrine maiden hissed. "If I have to listen to 'I spy' and then forty-seven guesses about whatever 'something brown' might be one more time…"
"Oh, come on, Ayako," Bou-san replied in a cajoling voice, "You could play with us!"
"Get bent."
"Yikes." Mai and Bou-san cringed away. Then they locked eyes and both thought about what to do for the next four hours. All of a sudden, Bou-san smirked and winked at Mai. Uh-oh.
"I spy with my little eye…" he began.
"Houshou…" Ayako seethed.
"… something that is currently pink, but is becoming red."
"Huh?" Mai was totally confused, searching the cabin for anything that was changing color.
"The sunset?" Yasu guessed, eyes still moving across the page of his book. Mai envied his ability to multitask.
"Nope," Bou-san grinned. "Nice try."
Mai glanced around the cabin again, but didn't see anything like that. A movement caught her eye. Ayako was visibly shaking in frustration. Bou-san's giggling obviously making it worse. Ayako's face was getting dark with anger… oh!
"Is it Ayako?" Mai guessed brightly. "Cause she just keeps getting redder with rage?"
"Yes!" Bou-san crowed delightedly.
Yasu snickered. A few people behind them giggled.
Ayako snapped.
"Both of you shut up!" she roared. "Next time we have a long flight, I'm drugging both of you! Now Mai, do some freaking reading! Yasu brought, like, EIGHTEEN books on the plane and I'm sure he could spare one!"
Mai opened her mouth to protest, but Ayako just grabbed one from Yasu's carry-on and thrust it into her hands.
"You've learned a lot, Mai, but a little extra knowledge can't hurt! You do want to show Naru who's boss now, right?"
Mai pursed her lips. She was only a lead investigator because she had more free time than the other founders of TTM Psychic Investigations. But she didn't want Naru to dismiss her, either.
Ayako watched a determined expression enter Mai's eyes and smirked. "So start reading."
The teen psychic sighed and cracked open The Science Behind the Supernatural.
-0O0-
Mai's arms burned under her long gloves, waking her from a sound sleep. She opened her eyes and rubbed her forearms. The silky material of the gloves slid across her scars, cooling them. The burning sensation was already fading. She wasn't unconsciously using her abilities, was she?
No, the feeling inside her – which Mai knew was her intuition, or 'animal instinct,' as Naru had irrtitatingly dubbed it – told her that it was something else. Some pull on her abilities, some connection… Mai closed her eyes again and tried to trace the connection. She saw a golden spiritual… cord… or something, and followed along it in her mind.
The other end of the cord ended at… Naru. She could see him in her mind, arms folded and eyes glaring ahead. The golden cord went straight to him. Mai gasped and opened her eyes again.
Bou-san was standing beside her in the aisle, pulling his carry-on and Ayako's out of the overhead bin. People were moving all around her. They must have touched down while she was sleeping. She should get up, too.
Mai shifted, The Science Behind the Supernatural moving on her lap. She had gotten about a hundred pages in before falling asleep. She dog-eared her page and pulled her backpack out from under the seat. Mai thrust the book into the backpack and unbuckled her seat belt, stretching happily.
As she closed her eyes and yawned, she saw the golden cord again. Ugh, how could she have forgotten about it? Why was she so easily distracted? Mai gritted her teeth, remembering Yasu's theory about her 'animal instincts' affecting other parts of life, like her attention span. Jerk.
Anyway, back to the cord. Mai noticed that the cord was the same gold as her visible PK-MT powers and just like the golden light which accompanied her purifications. Gene had said that the golden color identified Mai's spiritual powers – even those that were, er, appropriated later.
So then that would mean that Mai's abilities were connected to Naru. Well, all things considered, that made sense. Mai cringed inwardly, thinking of what Naru's reaction to all this would be, when the truth came out.
Ayako cleared her throat and Mai gazed up at her. Ayako's reaction would be terrible as well, probably. She could hear the yelling now.
Then she realized that Ayako was talking to her. Mai jerked herself out of dreamland to listen.
"… think we're moving, now, Mai," her future adopted mother said. "You should get ready to go."
"I think I'm good," Mai replied, stretching again. She stood up and grabbed her hoodie, pulling it on. Apparently, London was always chilly. And misty. No wonder it was a paranormal hotspot. Gene had once told her that English people also tended to be emotionally repressed in general, which made for lots of suppressed feelings and regrets to fuel an active afterlife. She thought he had been joking – but then again, look at Naru.
"All right, we're moving!" Bou-san cheered.
Mai grinned, checked her seat for anything left behind, and moved out into the aisle. She sucked in a breath, and followed Bou-san toward the front of the plane.
-0O0-
Customs took forever, but eventually their visas were verified and stamped, and the foursome walked toward the arrivals gate. Mai could feel her nerves building with each step she took. She had been confident when she sent in her application; she and Yasu had agreed that coming to England to work with Dr. Davis (Senior) and possibly with the Society for Paranormal Research had been the right idea. There was no parapsychology program at Tokyo University, so they had to look elsewhere.
Moreover, no program in Japan was so focused on the research end of the paranormal – most Japanese spiritualists tended to focus on religion and preserving existing rituals. In order to further their work on the research side of life and better their experimentation methodology, they needed to work with London's much more advanced program. They wanted to verify their theories and hopefully improve Mai's control over her interesting compilation of paranormal abilities.
This was especially important to Bou-san and Ayako, who were always worried about Mai's sometimes uncontrolled abilities combining with her tendency to get into trouble. Much drama was caused by her and her powers, Mai mused. Practically every case, something unexpected happened to her. Almost always her.
Even while Mai reassured herself that this transfer to England had been inevitable, her nervousness grew. She could feel herself getting closer to Naru with every footfall. What would she say to him? What would he say to her? After all, the last time they had spoken, Naru had been convinced that Mai was in love with his deceased twin brother. Mai had been confused about her feelings, as well. Then –
"Don't worry, Mai-chan," Yasu whispered, appearing next to her. "I really don't think that Naru will be here tonight. After all, Professor Davis said the other day that he and his wife would be coming to pick us up. He didn't say anyone else. And the Professor didn't sound like he knew that we worked with his son, so I don't think Naru knows we're coming. And Naru isn't the sort to do anything bothersome like coming to greet some of his father's new students at the airport."
Leave it to Yasu to work everything out so systematically. "Yeah, you're right," Mai agreed. "Naru would definitely see coming here as useless."
Yasu laughed lightly. "Yeah, the Big Boss is like that." He glanced at Mai. She smiled and unconsciously relaxed. Success, Yasu thought in triumph.
They had almost reached the gate now, and Mai looked out at the waiting people. She searched for Martin Davis, who she had met only briefly when they'd found Gene's body, but whose face she had seen countless times on book jackets and in her own research. She had hugged his wife Luella that night by the lake, but since then, she had only seen Mrs. Davis in articles about the family – Mai remembered her heart lurching as she came upon pictures of Naru and Gene in those articles. She still had the photo that Naru had given her, the photo of younger versions of himself and Gene – with Naru looking out at the camera with softer eyes and a shirt that wasn't black.
Speaking of black, Mai's eyes stopped on a figure wearing all black. Just like Naru… Her eyes locked on the male figure, taking in the familiar stance, the irritatingly straight posture. Mai's eyes traveled up the figure – total black to the collared neck of his shirt. Mai finally got to his head, her eyes unconsciously caressing the planes of his face. To her shock, Naru stood there in the crowd, arms folded, glaring straight ahead.
In the exact same position as she'd seen before, in her mind. Mai closed her eyes for a moment, seeing again the cord that led to him, and still seeing him there. Then the Naru in her mind changed focus, his eyes rolling in irritation and glaring to his side.
Mai popped her eyes open again and looked out. Naru was glaring at Madoka, who was to his side. So she really was seeing Naru in her mind! That burning in her arms that had woken her up had happened because her powers recognized her new proximity to the person to whom they were bound.
Her powers would probably never cease to amaze her. Mai shook her head in wonder.
Yasuhara had noticed Naru as well. He noticed Mai noticing Naru. This was unexpected and Mai was probably freaking out. Time for evasive action. He couldn't have Mai staring at the ground and mumbling when she met Naru again.
"Well, well, look at that!" Yasuhara said loudly, drawing Mai's attention. "Big Boss did come. Well, we are in England – maybe he's been rehabilitated by the Ghost of Christmas Future and is going to buy us a turkey dinner and sing carols…" Here he stopped, as Mai was now laughing so hard that she was doubled over.
She was still laughing when she walked through the gate. "Nah," Mai said, eyes twinkling, "Although that would be awesome, I really doubt it. Besides, it's June – not even close to Christmas. I think it's more likely that Madoka threatened the safety of his stock of tea to get him here."
Yasuhara grinned back, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Naru was staring openly at Mai. He was watching her smile and laugh. Success!