Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt. Manga 12 would have been published, among other things:)
Chapter 21 – Range of Emotion
-0O0-
It was late morning by the time Mai slumped into SPR's 'secondary base' (as Naru and Madoka referred to the equipment-room in the hotel). Mai's ribs hurt, her leg wound burned, and she had just finished a ten-minute-long battle with her clothes. She'd won the fight, but only just – her rumpled shirt and slightly askew skirt made it look as though Mai were ending a day of ghost hunting rather than starting one.
"Good morning, Mai-chan!" Yasuhara sang. "You look like you could use some breakfast!"
The giddiness in his voice almost made Mai want to hit him. "If by 'breakfast' you mean 'painkillers,'" she responded grouchily.
"I guess I do, sort of," Yasuhara replied. "You'll have to eat breakfast before taking any pills."
"Ugggh," Mai groaned, sinking onto the base's couch. She didn't want to eat right now.
"Come on, Mai-chan," Yasuhara coaxed, loading a plate. "You should know the drill by now. Food first, then meds."
"Medicine works quicker without food."
"Maybe. But ulcers suck."
"Don't know, haven't had one." Mai buried her face in a pillow.
"Well, you'll get one if you don't eat some toast before popping those pills."
"And you wouldn't be allowed to take painkillers for an ulcer caused by painkillers," Madoka interjected sagely. "So think of it as saving yourself lots of future pain."
Her new boss' voice sounded very close. Mai opened one eye to find a plate of toast in her face and two identical over-bright smiles just beyond. "I think having Madoka-san and Yasu in the same place for too long is a bad thing," she announced to the room.
"Indeed," Naru intoned from his chair. "If they continue to feed off of one another, we may have to call Takigawa back from Japan... to exorcise the monster that will have coalesced from their combined energies."
Yasuhara gasped mockingly. "Big Boss, did you just make a joke?"
"How observant, Yasuhara. No wonder you were accepted to Cambridge."
"Madoka-san, there's something wrong with Big Boss!" Yasuhara hissed loudly. "You didn't give him any painkillers, did you?"
"No, Noll thwarted my efforts to slip them into his tea," she replied sadly.
"The two of you are exceptionally idiotic this morning," Naru drawled. "Mai, eat. Then they'll stop and we can get moving."
"There's no evidence to suggest that they'll stop," Lin observed. "That sounds like hope talking, Noll."
This time Madoka and Yasuhara exchanged an honestly amazed glance.
"Lin-san's making jokes, too?" Yasu asked weakly. "Maybe there's something in the toast..."
"Good, I hope it's painkillers," Mai mumbled to herself, biting into a piece.
"But we ate the toast, Yasu," Madoka pointed out. "Wouldn't a mystery ingredient affect us as well?"
"Hmm, you're right..." Yasuhara nodded. Then his eyes lit. "Wait a minute – maybe not! We're already fun and playful, Madoka-san, so..."
"You guys could be immune," Mai completed his thought. Apparently her reasoning skills were coming online. "I guess that makes sense – once you've been exposed to strong doses of something, a weaker level of the same won't work." Mai swallowed another bite of toast and made a weak grab for the accompanying cup of tea.
"Are you suggesting we habitually take mind-altering drugs, Mai-chan?" Madoka asked with a grin.
"She may be onto something, Madoka-san," Yasuhara contended. "Like I was saying, we're already awesome... so naturally, a low-level awesomeness-inducer wouldn't have any effect."
"Awesomeness... inducer?" Mai repeated blankly. She was in too much pain for this.
"That's what you get for encouraging them," Naru muttered, circling some interesting lines in one of Yasuhara's copied library records. "And if you're all quite finished being ridiculous and unproductive, I've found some data I'd like to discuss."
-0O0-
A few hours later, Mai and Naru were manning a desk in the 'primary base' – Naru rifling through headlines from a hundred years ago, Mai serving tea. Lin sat in his computer chair - on monitor duty, as usual.
Until the walkie-talkie squawked. "Koujo?" Madoka's voice asked through static. "Do you know where we stashed that extra camera? I thought we put in under the seat."
Lin thumbed the button. "We did."
"Well, I'm looking now and it's not there."
The onmyouji sighed and rose to his feet. "I'll be right out, Madoka."
Once Lin left the base, Naru's gaze fixed immediately on the monitors – but he wasn't taking over the watch so much as marking Lin's progress toward the front door. When he was at least two rooms away, Naru turned to his former assistant. Might as well get this over with. "Mai."
"Yes, Narcissist, your tea will be ready in a moment," Mai assured him, opening the portable cup of cream.
"I'm thrilled to hear it, but that wasn't actually the object of my inquiry."
"There was an inquiry in there somewhere?" Mai asked saucily. "I thought it sounded like the beginnings of a command."
The painkillers were making her braver, Naru decided. He smirked and held out a hand. "If you're expecting a directive, I may as well provide one – give me your phone."
"What?" Mai asked confusedly. What was it with everybody and her phone? "Is yours dead or something?"
"Hardly." Naru's hand never wavered – and he added a demanding stare.
Mai was still lost – but also curious enough to retrieve her cell phone and place it gingerly in Naru's outstretched palm.
He pressed a button to bring up the home screen... before looking up to see Mai goggling at him. "The tea," Naru reminded her.
She was so thrown that she obeyed. By the time Mai realized that she was following Naru's orders and whipped around to yell, he was holding the phone out for her to take back. "Hey! You tricked me!"
"Two years older and still so gullible," Naru noted mockingly.
"Jerk," Mai muttered, snatching the phone from his hand. "Your tea's ready, by the way. It's over there. No way am I bringing it to you." Ha.
"That's alright," Naru said, noticing movement on the video screens. "Can you bring my tea over with yours, Lin?" he asked as the Chinese man re-entered the room.
"I can't tell whether you timed that or just got lucky," Mai grumbled.
"Luck favors the prepared," Naru replied with a smirk.
Annoyed, Mai returned her attention to her cell phone – which she regarded as though it were about to bite her. "What did you do to it?"
"I saved my number in your contacts," he responded simply. Perhaps if he were nonchalant enough, Mai would just accept it and move on. A few seconds passed... and no yelling. Perhaps his plan had worked. Naru looked up to verify his conclusion - to see both Mai and Lin staring in his direction, mouths open.
Mai recovered first. "You did what?" The 'what' was more a squeak than a word.
"Apparently you didn't have it," Naru said lightly, determined to brazen this out.
"Well, no, because you said no when I asked you –"
"At the time, I was trying to conceal my presence in Japan. You have a big mouth, Mai."
"Excuse me?" Mai's eyebrow twitched.
"I asked you to keep the spoon-bending a secret, didn't I?" Naru reminded her archly. "You only managed two days before snitching on me in front of everyone, including Lin – who I specifically requested you keep it from."
The young psychic was silent – Naru wasn't wrong. However... "I only said something because you were being mean and calling me an animal!"
"No, I said that you were like an animal," Naru corrected.
"Because that's so much better!" Mai contested hotly.
"Whatever the case," Naru said firmly, "You blurted out exactly what I didn't want you to say, to exactly who I didn't want you to say it. I can only imagine what could have happened had I given you my phone number. The minute you next became upset with my behavior, my contact information would probably have been posted online as revenge."
"And of course, you would never think of altering said behavior to avoid this 'revenge,'" Mai scoffed, voice dripping with sarcasm.
Naru raised an eyebrow. "Why would I? I don't consider my behavior to be in need of alteration."
"Well, you're the only one who doesn't!" Mai snapped. "Not that the opinion of others would bother someone like you, right?"
Naru's smirk returned. "At long last, you understand."
Mai glared. "Careful, Naru – your superiority complex is showing."
"It isn't a complex if one is superior."
"Narcissist!" Her teacup rattled in its saucer, as if jostled by an invisible hand.
"Careful, Mai – your temper is showing."
"Ugh, stupid PK!" She clumsily grabbed for her wiggling cup of tea. Liquid sloshed onto the table, spattering the desk and her cell phone.
"Mai, try not to let your supernaturally enhanced rage destroy your phone," her former boss cautioned. He calmly circled another news headline. "After all, you've only just got my number after years of wanting it."
An interesting noise erupted from his former assistant – it was somewhere between a disgusted scoff and an embarrassed shriek. "Naru!"
Her tormentor's lips twitched as he held out a hand. "If you're not using those files, I'd like to look over them." He almost added, 'Before you spill tea all over them,' but decided against it. He wasn't up for cleaning the base if Mai totally lost it and poltergeisted.
"Fine," Mai hissed, face still flushed. "Come over and get them, then."
Naru raised a questioning eyebrow.
Mai smiled meanly. "I'm too far away to hand the files over," she reasoned, tone falsely sweet. "But I suppose I could throw them at you, Dr. Davis."
"They wouldn't be of use to anyone on the floor and out of order," Naru replied, calmly meeting Mai's infuriated stare.
Lin sipped his tea and wondered if either of them realized that he was still in the room.
-0O0-
Later that day, most of the team gathered in the base to await the arrival of Yasuhara. Madoka sighed grumpily, allowing her head to fall onto the desk in front of her. "Ugh, hours of looking over research and tapes with precious little to show for it."
Mai sighed. "I know." She was rather disappointed herself. "And I haven't gotten anything, psychic-wise, from these files. Not even a hint of a vision."
"That's because you were missing the good stuff," a voice called from the hall. Yasuhara smiled brightly as he entered the base. "I just found this at the library." He offered Mai a folder of information before turning to Madoka and explaining. "You see, yesterday I looked through recent disappearances and old insanity cases – and got mostly nothing. But Mai said one of the ghosts was insane, so I knew I was missing something. And then it hit me – what if the insanity was never reported? People back then often covered up crazy people in the family, right? So I combined our search ideas and looked for old disappearances. And I found this!" He pointed to the folder, grinning broadly at Mai.
Mai smiled back before looking over Yasu's discovery. It was a page from an old local paper. About halfway down the page, an article headline jumped out at her - "Reclusive Son of Walter Reed Declared Missing." The moment her injured hand brushed the printed surname, the room spun and Mai blacked out.
-0O0-
"There's nothing else for it," a wizened voice said sadly. "If you insist on keeping him in this house, he'll need to be locked up. Mr. Reed, your son's uncontrollable mental state makes him a danger to society. But just as important is Georgie's danger to himself – that cut on his arm is obviously self-inflicted. I would implore you, one last time, to send him for treatment elsewhere."
"He will not be leaving this house!" a second voice roared. "I will not have the world knowing that I fathered a lunatic!"
This voice was angry – but posh-sounding, too. And it sounded like it was coming from upstairs. Mai looked up at the ceiling – which was painted a snowy white and decidedly not in ruins. This difference prompted Mai to study her surroundings.
She was still in the base. The room's dimensions were the same... but it looked completely different. Gleaming wooden furniture lined the walls, a thick carpet was under her feet, and sunlight streamed through lacy curtains. Mai was in the past, obviously – and given that touching the newspaper clipping had caused this vision, she was very likely seeing the time period during which the article was written.
There were also a few odd-looking lamps in the room – not like any she'd seen before. Ignoring the voices for a moment (which had quieted down), Mai slipped over to the strange lamp and studied them more closely. One had a bulb inside it - but it was smaller than Mai was used to, it looked... different somehow. The other lamp was odder still - there was no bulb at all. It's also rather expensive-looking, she thought. Hand-painted designs of flowers bloomed over frosted glass... and a stylized knob on the outside connected to a low flame on the inside. Some kind of Bunsen-burner-lamp? "This must be before electricity was the norm," Mai said to herself. A sense of satisfaction stole through her – she'd been right about the ghosts being older than everyone thought.
Upstairs, the yelling erupted again. The angry man was shouting at someone. Mai concentrated, trying to tell whether the angry vibes she felt now were similar to those she'd encountered on the stairs. That would probably make this man the angry ghost. But... his anger didn't feel as chaotic as the feelings she'd been sensing in the house. Mai sighed and left the not-base, heading for the stairs. She really didn't want to head up there again, but it was obviously the place to be.
And a moment later, Mai almost slapped herself. She was an SPR investigator! She faced down ghosts on a daily basis and should not be afraid of walking up some stairs! Then she saw the stairs, and inhaled sharply – but not in fear.
In the present day, the staircase was a dilapidated, broken-down mess... but in this time period, it was beautiful. Gleaming wood shone in the afternoon sunlight and panes of colored glass sparkled in between each post. The stairs themselves were partially covered by a rich-looking patterned runner. Mai took a moment to appreciate what was clearly the centerpiece of the front hall.
Suddenly, three people walked onto the upstairs landing. An elderly man in a white coat carried a black bag and a sad expression. A doctor, Mai reckoned, and probably the first voice I heard. A sad-looking woman followed after him. She was lovely, with hair piled elegantly atop her head and dressed in a lacy, poufy gown that fell in gathers to her feet. Her hands were clasped in front of her, and a golden ring on her finger winked in the light.
A matching ring glittered on the hand of the last person – a thunderous-looking man with a moustache and tensed-up shoulders. He gripped the railing so tightly that Mai worried the wood would crack under the strain. This man (obviously the owner of the second voice) was still shouting as the doctor made his way to the front door.
"And you won't be telling anyone about this, Stone!" he roared. "It's terrible enough that I have a lunatic son! I won't be pleased should you share this troublesome information with others."
Mai's mouth dropped open – didn't he care about his son at all?
His hand on the doorknob, the doctor turned in place and gave the man a hard look. "Mr. Reed, as a medical professional, I am under obligation to protect the privacy of my patients. However, I don't believe that anything I could say about your son could be as unpleasant as your attitude toward the matter. Good day, sir."
Mai found the doctor's attitude much more satisfactory than Mr. Reed's. Wait, Reed? That was the name in the paper, Mai remembered. Then that meant... it was this man's son who went missing? Mai pursed her lips and glanced up the stairs. Well, the son was obviously here now...
The doctor pulled a hat from the stand beside the front door, and tipped it in the direction of the woman. "Mrs. Reed, if your son needs anything, feel free to send for me immediately." He extended no such nicety to Mr. Reed before exiting the house.
"The nerve of that quack!" Mr. Reed roared. "I should have him run out of town!"
"Darling," Mrs. Reed spoke up for the first time. "Calm yourself. Dr. Stone is only trying to help us." She laid a tender hand on her husband's arm... and to Mai's surprise, the man quieted instantly. He even managed to offer his wife a look of sincere affection.
"He can leave his preaching at the door, then," Mr. Reed grumbled.
"Now, I know you're as worried about Georgie as I am," Mrs. Reed continued placatingly.
Their psychic observer raised an eyebrow at this. It sure didn't look that way from here. As if to prove Mai's point, Mr. Reed gave a dark look in the direction of the stairs.
Mai would wager her dinner that the room in which Georgie resided was the upstairs bedroom covered in scratches. With a father like that, Mai could totally understand the fear and pain permeating every inch of the place.
But… was Georgie the angry ghost, or the excited ghost?
Deep in thought, Mai watched Mrs. Reed embrace her upset husband. She almost didn't notice the figure at the top of the stairs. But then a twitchy movement caught her eye, and Mai looked up to see the live version of her ghostly attacker standing on the landing. He stared at his parents, just as Mai had been doing until a moment ago. Georgie looked longingly at the embracing couple... did he want a hug, too?
"What are you doing there?" Mr. Reed boomed suddenly. Mai jumped in surprise and Georgie braced himself against the railing, grasping it with thin fingers. A high-pitched, keening sound came from his throat.
"Darling..." Mrs. Reed began.
"Get back in your room!" Mr. Reed continued, ignoring both his wife and Georgie's wailing. "You heard that doctor – you're a menace to society! If you can't stay in your room like I told you, then I'll follow his advice and lock you in there for good!"
The threat seemed to bounce around the front hall, punctuated by the loud crying of Georgie and the whispered platitudes of Mrs. Reed. Mai just stared at Mr. Reed, her mouth open at his awfulness, until she caught another movement from upstairs in her peripheral vision. "What the...?" Mai trailed off.
As if a switch somewhere had been flipped, Georgie stopped cowering. Instead, he stood very straight... and a strange, eerie look came into his face.
Mr. Reed's eyes widened slightly... and he moved swiftly to stand in front of his wife, holding an arm out as if to shield her. Mai just looked on, confused at the almost-panic in Mr. Reed's face.
Until Georgie thrust out a pale arm and picked up a nearby vase.
"Dear, please don't," Mrs. Reed said, a pleading edge to her voice.
But Mr. Reed gave his son a twisted smile. "Go ahead," he said daringly. "You'll only be proving my point."
"Why..." Georgie hissed, fury sparking in his eyes, "Can't you just love me?"
"We do, dear!" his mother insisted.
"He doesn't!" Georgie roared. And with a lightning-quick movement that Mai barely saw, he hurled the vase down the stairs. Mr. Reed brought his other arm up to protect his face...
And the dream-vision shattered around Mai as the vase shattered against Mr. Reed. Mai could hear Mrs. Reed screaming and Georgie laughing as she drifted back toward consciousness.
-0O0-
"Mai-chan?" Madoka's voice swam in the air above her. Mai groaned and moved slowly, making sure that her body and spirit were synced together again. She opened her eyes to find a concerned Madoka right above her. Yasuhara stood next to his mentor, holding out an open bottle of Powerade. Mai reached out a shaky hand and snagged the Powerade, trying not to spill it as she sat up. Someone moved me to the couch, she thought, taking a gulp of the fruity-tasting juice. "Thanks for the drink, Yasu," she murmured.
"Well, I figure I'm indirectly responsible for that particular blackout," he replied, grinning. "It's the least I can do. Not to mention I totally took advantage of you while you were unconscious."
"Huh?" Mai asked uncomprehendingly.
Yasu poked Mai in the forehead – but somehow didn't touch skin. Mai put a hand to her hairline and felt an electrode. So they'd hooked her up to that machine during her vision. "That was smart," she told her best friend.
"Of course it was. So much easier to get things done when your prey isn't protesting," Yasuhara said with an exaggerated wink.
Mai rolled her eyes. "Ugh, I am way too woozy for double meanings. Can you hold off on the sleazy comments until I'm really awake?"
"Hmm, I guess so. I should probably start sifting through the data, anyway." Yasu knew that Mai had to focus and explain her dream before she forgot any important details. Besides, Naru was about two seconds away from ordering him to recalibrate all of the cameras out of unrecognized jealousy. Yasuhara decided that placating him was in everyone's best interests. "Want some tea, Big Boss? I'm going to make some for Mai-chan."
Naru blinked. "No, not right now."
Madoka elbowed Mai and leaned in. "What Noll means is that he'll wait for you to feel good enough to make the tea," she whispered.
"Because I'm the resident tea slave?" Mai hissed back, eyes flat.
The master ghost hunter rolled her eyes. "No, because he wants your tea." She winked.
Mai inhaled sharply and felt all the blood in her body rush up to her face. She shook her head to clear her mind and disperse her raging blush. "Um, so I had a dream."
"Yeah, we figured that," Yasu said, holding up a sheet of paper with some squiggly lines on it. "We got nothing for a while; you must have been projecting again. But we could tell the instant you came back to your body. It took you a couple of minutes to really come to... don't you usually wake up right away?"
"Only after really disturbing first-person dreams," Mai replied. "If I'm feeling really scared, or if the person I'm seeing the vision through is murdered... that's usually enough to cause a fast wake-up. Normally, though, it takes a while to come back."
"See? A little bit of data and we've already learned something," Madoka said happily. "Alright, Mai-chan – what happened in this vision?"
-0O0-
"The only thing I still can't figure out," Mai finished, "Is which ghost Georgie is."
"What do you mean?" Yasuhara asked.
"Well, there are two presences," Mai reminded him. "One angry, one... excited. Which, honestly, isn't the right word for how that ghost feels to my senses..." She thought back to an advanced English class at Todai – they'd spent a week discussing similar-sounding terms with disparate meanings. "Maybe I really mean excitable?"
Naru shifted in his chair. "An excitable person is someone who is easy to emotionally motivate."
Mai nodded vigorously. "Then that's what I mean to say – one presence is excitable. But..." she frowned. "That still doesn't answer the big question – which ghost is Georgie?" Mai sipped her Powerade before continuing. "I mean, going by the dream... I would say that Georgie is the excitable ghost. He went from scared, to calm, to super-pissed in a matter of seconds. Maybe what I read as 'excitement' is an extension of that... instability."
Lin made a sound of agreement. "You also said that Mr. Reed was very angry throughout the vision. The angry ghost has been similarly mono-emotional, correct?"
"Mm-hm," Mai nodded. Then she paused. "Well... right before I was pushed down the stairs, I felt fear and anger. But that could have been the presence of both of the ghosts..." Then she stopped. "But... maybe the angry ghost isn't Mr. Reed. The angry ghost was the one that followed me down the stairs... and it really looked like Georgie."
Yasuhara clucked his tongue. "Well, they were father and son. Did they closely resemble one another?"
"Not really," Mai replied. "Georgie was really thin. His father –"
"Looked like this," Naru cut her off, tossing a fresh printout onto the table in front of Mai. A copy of an old-looking photograph depicting Mr. Reed stared up at her. Naru worked fast.
"Mr. Walter Reed, textile mill owner," her former boss continued in a clipped tone. "Very wealthy and owned property in London and Brighton, among other places. He also had a house in Bath, which was supposedly purchased for the improvement of the health of his reclusive and apparently physically ill son."
"He didn't want anyone to know that Georgie was actually mentally ill," Mai said sadly, remembering Mr. Reed's harsh words to the doctor.
"That was more common than you'd think, Mai-chan," Madoka told her sympathetically. "The way we perceive people like Georgie has changed dramatically in the last hundred years or so. Back in those days, the mentally ill were considered greatly dangerous and often beyond help. Most of them were locked up in asylums under horrible conditions. At least the Reeds were more merciful than that."
"His mother was," Mai agreed. "But Mr. Reed wasn't merciful so much as he was afraid that someone would find out about Georgie's issues."
"Mental deficiencies in children reflected badly on their parents," Naru informed her dispassionately. "People likely would have considered Mr. Reed as a lesser man, or a failed father, had they known of Georgie's apparent bipolarity."
"That doesn't make it okay!" Mai yelled, incensed that Naru was defending Mr. Reed's actions.
"I didn't say it did," Naru replied coolly. "I'm only attempting to explain Mr. Reed's thought processes. Unpleasant truths are still truths." He met Mai's gaze with his own.
Mai's breath hitched at the look in Naru's eyes. It was the same dead, cold look that she'd seen at Urado's mansion, when she accused him of not understanding how it felt to die. Of course, she hadn't known about his clairvoyance then. And now he looked out of dead eyes again, while discussing failed parents and crazy children... oh.
Naru and Gene had lived in an orphanage until Martin and Luella adopted them. He probably knew children like Georgie, abandoned by ashamed or incapable parents. Or even worse... Considering Naru's own laundry list of psychic abilities, it was likely that people at the orphanage saw him the same way Mr. Reed saw Georgie.
"I – you're right, Naru. I'm sorry I snapped at you," Mai said softly. He looked away.
Madoka smiled a bit as she watched this interaction. Mai was quicker than people gave her credit for. Of course, as a fellow orphan, Mai might possess a better frame of reference than most people did...
Madoka knew that Noll and Gene had experienced similar troubles at the orphanage - its mistress had informed Martin on the subject when he'd arrived to examine them. A lot of the other orphans and several of the staff insisted the twins were crazy. Seeing ghosts, telling the maids that objects in their room moved of their own accord, somehow knowing secrets about people in the orphanage... the 'crazy' accusations were almost a given.
Luckily, the father of one of the orphanage's aids worked for SPR, and he recognized the signs of psychic ability from phone calls with his child. Martin was notified, and the head of SPR journeyed to the United States almost immediately.
Martin had taken Luella with him to the orphanage. They hadn't been able to have children, which disappointed Luella deeply. They had been considering adoption, so Martin thought it a good idea to bring her along. He'd planned on sending Luella for a tour of the place while he interviewed Oliver and Eugene, but she'd decided to stay with her husband. The twins' plight had concerned her – plus, Luella was a psychologist. If the twins didn't turn out to be psychic, Luella figured that she could at least formulate a better diagnosis than 'crazy' or 'liars.'
And after one afternoon with Noll and Gene, Martin and Luella were signing papers to adopt them.
Madoka remembered talking with Martin about his new additions, in a private conversation after class. She remembered how happy he'd seemed – and not just about their obvious and highly interesting psychic abilities. Although Martin was less effusive about their 'adorableness' than Luella apparently was, Martin was very impressed with their intelligence, their bond with one another, and their highly developed personalities. He did say that they were noticeably wounded emotionally, but he hoped time and family life would help. Madoka smiled to herself; it was this conversation that had taken her relationship with Martin from that of 'teacher' and 'favorite student' to friendship. She'd met Luella and the twins a month later.
Noll's voice cut into Madoka's reminiscences. "Perhaps the answer lies in the 'excitable' ghost's being more multi-faceted than we initially calculated."
"What do you mean?" Mai asked, tilting her head – cutely, in Madoka's opinion. Noll apparently agreed, as he paused a moment and looked at Mai with softer-than-normal eyes. His mentor bit back a grin.
"Obviously that the 'angry' ghost isn't the only spirit which can exhibit anger. The 'angry' ghost may be continuously angry, but that doesn't mean that the 'excitable' ghost can't sometimes be angry. The 'excitable' spirit simply has more of an emotional range. And the symptoms of Georgie's mental illness match such changeability."
"Excellent work, Noll," Madoka said, snapping back into researcher-mode. "So it's likely that Georgie is the 'excitable' ghost, and the father is angry ghost, then."
Mai bit her lip. Hadn't she told them that Mr. Reed's anger felt different from the ghost's? But then again... she'd been taught that a ghost's feelings often changed over time, becoming more and more twisted as time went by. A hundred years was a long time. It was possible that Mr. Reed remained in the house as the angry ghost... but they had little evidence to support that conclusion. So, regardless of what any of them thought... "We need more information," Mai finished her thought aloud.
"It appears so," Naru agreed, studying the article that had sent Mai careening into a vision. "Now that we have a basic understanding of the family and their conflicts, we can fine-tune our research appropriately."
Madoka nodded. "There must be more information on Georgie's 'going missing.' If we double up on the research end, we can get the information double quick. So, someone will accompany Yasu to the library tomorrow. All things considered, it should be probably be Mai-chan."
"Huh?" Mai asked dumbly. "I'm probably the worst researcher out of the five of us!"
"And you'll never get any better unless you practice," Madoka replied smoothly. "But look at it this way, Mai-chan – you're injured, psychically exhausted, and under threat of future attack. Time for a break, I think."
Mai pursed her lips. Madoka did have a point. But still...
"I disagree," Naru stated coolly. "Mai is the most valuable investigator on this case."
Everyone turned to face him, varying degrees of surprise visible in their expressions. Mai's was definitely the most shocked.
"She is our primary link to the ghosts," Naru reminded his mentor. "Mai has already had two major connections with a ghost." Perhaps three connections, but Naru was still convinced that the first astral projection had connected Mai with Gene, rather than with the house's spirits.
"I agree," Lin spoke up. "We would benefit from Taniyama-san's remaining close by. The ghosts are obviously able to contact her, and it is more likely that the case will be solved via Taniyama-san's abilities rather than library research. The article about the younger Reed's disappearance did not give us any insight into his character or life, as Taniyama-san has done. We need such details to plan out an exorcism. And considering that the family worked hard to keep personal details out of the press, I highly doubt that any details of Georgie's drama became a matter of public record."
"Unless Georgie was eventually admitted to a hospital," Madoka argued. "Or did something so bad it required police intervention. If either happened, there'd be a record... wait!" Madoka whipped around to face Mai. "That doctor from your dream had to keep records! Do you remember his name? If he left his case record to the public, there should definitely be something on Georgie."
"His name was..." Mai closed her eyes. She heard Mrs. Reed's voice in her head – 'Darling, calm yourself. Dr. Stone is only trying to help us.' "His name was Dr. Stone."
"Madoka, you have just proven my point," Naru asserted. "You should be the one to accompany Yasuhara; your research instincts are superior. Mai's strengths lie in her psychic talents and are most fruitful at a haunted dwelling. Besides, she will have plenty of time to hone her researching abilities at Cambridge."
Mai was momentarily stunned. Naru apparently agreed with her own assessment of her skills. And he had said 'her strengths' – implying that Naru thought she had strengths. Mai bit her lip again – this time to fight off a silly smile.
The 'boss' of their team studied Naru closely for a moment before acquiescing. "Alright, Noll. Mai-chan stays here... but you get to watch over her and make sure the malevolent ghosts don't hurt her again." A sneaky smile curved across Madoka's face.
To which Naru responded with a cold glare. "I'm not sure what you find amusing about the ghosts' obvious predilection for bothering Mai." He knew he was being baited, and refused to rise to the occasion. Better to sidestep Madoka when she got like this.
The master ghost hunter sighed heavily. "Fine, Noll. Be as un-fun as you'd like."
"I will, thanks." Naru turned and clicked a couple of buttons on the main computer, not-so-subtly ending the conversation.
"How come you only say 'thank you' in a jerky way?" Mai inquired. She remembered asking this already, but it sincerely flummoxed her. "Why say it at all, then?" Naru tensed slightly and Mai found herself even more interested.
"Heh," Madoka laughed meanly. "It involves a deal with me, made long ago. But I'll tell you about it later. It's almost time to head out for the night, guys – so if there's anything you want to get done before dusk, do it now."
-0O0-
Lin took a moment to relish the silence. Following Madoka's pronouncement, Naru dragged Mai off to the front hall to re-trace her path in the dream (and likely go over everything again, in case she'd forgotten to mention something helpful). Madoka and Yasuhara were currently outside, having elected to do an equipment check.
Happily alone in the base once again, Lin chose to re-examine what he felt was the most interesting discovery of the case. Calling up a minimized window, Lin played the video feed of the attack on Mai for the umpteenth time.
The staircase incident was pretty straightforward – though Noll's obsessive watching and re-watching of that moment suggested otherwise. But Lin attributed Noll's fixation to self-punishment over Mai's injury, rather than to analysis of the attack.
Lin did not share Noll's unvoiced feelings of self-scorn. Not only was Mai (relatively) fine, she should have called for help before running off at half-cock to the most dangerous spot in the house. Mai had even said so herself.
So rather than watch the staircase attack, Lin replayed the feed captured right before it – video of the hallway outside base, where Mai had been resting against the wall before becoming mysteriously stuck to the floor. And although the sticking to the floor and the glowing scratches were quite interesting, those supernatural occurrences were not what held Lin's attention. He paused the feed and moved his face as close to the screen as possible. Was it a trick of the light?
Upon finding herself stuck to the floor, Mai had panicked briefly before cleverly calling upon her PK-MT to fend off the attack. As her current instructor, Lin found himself rather proud of her quick thinking and correct response.
But Mai's usage of PK wasn't the issue. The issue was the faint glow that appeared to move down Mai's forearm moments before she freed herself from the grip of the ghost-scratches.
It could have been a trick of the light... After all, there were lots of glowing scratches on the screen. Possibly Mai moved in a way that only made it look as if the light were coming from her arm when it was really from the floor. It was conceivable.
However, it was also conceivable that the glow was generated by Mai herself. Lin pursed his lips. He had been a researcher for SPR for quite a long time now. And while he didn't have the same psychic instincts that Mai possessed, he was a very capable investigator and onmyouji. And those instincts were telling him that the mysterious glow was coming from Mai.
Lin sighed, conflicted. Even if he were right... it didn't necessarily mean anything dire. Noll's powers sometimes caused a rather intense glow to manifest around him. It was feasible that Mai's PK caused a similar effect – in this instance, her concentration was heightened by fear and danger, which could explain the sudden appearance of the never-before-seen glow.
In fact... though neither he nor any of SPR had ever noticed, it was reasonable to assume that Mai's powers produced this glow all the time. Lin would never have seen it this time if the hallway hadn't been so dim... and Mai's tests and lessons were performed in brightly-lit laboratories.
Plus, she wore those black gloves all the time. The fabric was opaque, obviously, as its purpose was to hide reportedly disfiguring scars. Mai's arms could glow every time she used her PK... without anyone noticing. Given that Mai sometimes still neglected to explain things properly, it was likely that she simply hadn't mentioned the glow. She'd seen Noll's abilities in action – maybe she thought glowing was expected.
And yet... a warning sounded in Lin's brain. Something in the back of his mind, a thought that he couldn't quite pull together into something coherent... There was something... off about the whole matter. He stared unblinkingly at the monitor as Mai won against the floor and briefly studied her freed hand in triumph.
As she raced unwisely towards the stairs, completely bypassing the able-to-assist onmyouji visible on-screen, Lin made up his mind. Mai was obviously not going to bring up the glow on her own. Though now an investigator herself, she sometimes shied away from help and was curiously defensive about certain aspects of her powers. He'd just have to bring it up himself. Alone, he mentally added. She was even more reticent around Noll.
Which was interesting, as well – it was as if Mai were trying to hide something from Oliver.
Lin choked back a laugh. Good luck with that, Taniyama-san.
-0O0-
AN: Okay, I'm back from vacation!:) I had a great time - I think walking up an active volcano on Santorini, followed by jumping off a tour boat and swimming to some natural salt-water hot springs was the highlight. Greece was beautiful, Rome was wonderful (but sooooo hot) and the island cruise we took was the perfect way to end the trip:)
Of course, I got a sinus infection almost immediately upon my return, so I couldn't really write for a few days. But I'm feeling better now, and I was so surprised and pleased at the huge number of reviews I got during my absence! I love you guys! And don't worry, I'll be doing review replies after I post this;)
Anyway, so here's the next chapter:)