Two days later found Mai exhausted, in a taxi, heading towards Lin's flat. The decision was made that until Mai was present they wouldn't try and explain things to Naru's parents.
The hope was that Mai, having a better emotional way with words than Naru, could help break the news to his parents.
At the end of the day Naru and Lin aren't really known for their emotions and Gene would exactly be in a position to help.
No matter how tired Mai may be from her flight, she was still grateful and excited for the opportunity. It wasn't everyday that she got to go to England. Even though she was mostly going as a 'mediator', she was curious what Naru's parents were like. They had raised a genius, not an evil one but still a narcissistic one, that was not an easy breed to care for.
After the long taxi ride and finally finding Lin's flat, she finally saw Gene in the flesh.
"You're actually alive" She breathed in awe, touching his cheek with her hand. Many religions had reincarnation after death but to see revival was another matter.
Once life had fizzled out there wasn't much that could bring it back. She still remembers the first time she saw C.P.R, not on Naru but years ago on her mother. The thirty compressions on her chest and the two breaths trying to breathe life back into the husk of a body. She never felt like it was the physical actions that brought her mother back for the final time but the will of the nurse fighting for her patients. That was four days before she died.
The reason she never felt that the physical actions brought her mother back is the final time her heart stopped, as she stood behind the glass I.C.U doors, she knew that there was no way she would be brought back. No amount of compressions or defibrillation would bring her back because she had finally given up, stopped fighting tuberculosis.
Such a simple disease but when left too long, kills. She had waited too long for antibiotics, by the point she saw a doctor she had 30% of her lung function left.
Her lung had withered away by this point, the ventilator not helping much and her body gripping life by a thread. At the end of the day her body went septic and that was the end of it. Her sweet mother was gone.
Thinking back, that might be the first time she had seen a spirit, not her mothers but on her way out of the hospital after signing the death certificate. She had gone to the local soup kitchen having no guardian left and her emancipation trial in days time. At the time she didn't realise he was a spirit, the old man with his bowl of soup rolling a cigarette, turned to her and said "Their soup hasn't gotten any better has it?".
Clearly not expecting a response from a 14 year old girl. He looked dumbstruck when she responded "It's not that bad, it fills my stomach". When she looked up he was gone.
It's not until she met the ghost from the doll house case that she realised he wasn't real.
Standing in front of the living dead was an odd feeling. Gene's spirit had been pulled from the shinigami and dragged back into a body, a living body. His previously pallid skin was full of color with no traces of the tragedy that had befallen him.
As she was about to pull her hand away from his face something unexpected happened. An intense static shock ran through her body, making her wobble precariously on her feet. It was as if he had sucked all the energy from her body.
Her vision turned gray like an old-fashioned static on a television as she dropped to the floor.
Naru quickly caught her under her armpits but not before her knee hit the ground.
"Mai? Mai?" He called the dazed Mai. Lin leaned down to look at her "Looks like exhaustion?"
Lin was rather confused by the predicament, turning to look at Gene questioning. Gene however was just as confused as everyone else, his body had felt tired over the last few days no matter how much sleep he got but now he was buzzing with energy like when Naru left some his PK behind when doing a transfer.
"I think I might have taken Mai's energy?"
That was really the only explanation he could give, when he uttered that, Naru stared at him. Potentially Mai was the catalyst for Gene's revival, more and more evidence was pointing to that fact.
As she slowly came around from her daze, Lin passed a breakfast bar in hopes of bringing her energy level back up. This however didn't stop her, in her attempt to stand up, from nearly kissing the floor again.
Surprisingly Naru took the initiative to hold her up from under the arm and bring her to his bed to sleep.
Naru didn't usually like anyone near his belongings, even more so his room. For him to put someone in his bed was very odd to see.
The next morning was the day of reckoning, for the first time in a year and a half Luella and Martin were going to see Gene.
Mai had recovered from last night's events but was still tired. This was overshadowed by learning that Naru was a rich boy. She didn't know much about the prices of houses in the UK but she was pretty sure that a detached house in the Cambridge countryside wasn't cheap.
It was a large old red bricked house, surrounded by a large garden and a small pound that she could see in the distance. The final nail in the coffin however was the assistant, YES ASSISTANT! Who came to greet us at the door. He clearly was new or something by his non-reaction to Gene's presence, like it was completely normal for dead bodies to come back to life.
The group walked over to what seemed to be the living room. Hearing footsteps Luella turned around to see her son, she paused however when she looked closer.
The smile, the coloured clothing and the loving stare was enough to tell her all she needed. She had always been able to differentiate Noll from Gene. She didn't know what to do with herself, she only managed to gasp as she called "Martin!" urgent.
Turning quickly from the paper in his hand he saw Noll first and then Noll? His mind caught up to him, "Gene?" He whispered, both in shock.
"That's me" Gene replied awkwardly, dying was one of his worst mistakes he ever made. Gene knew that his parents were assuming he was missing/dead at this point. He still remembers the thoughts he had when the car was about to hit him, the crazed woman not giving a damn about his well-being. He had hoped he wouldn't die, that it was going to be just an accident that he could shrug off and move on but no, it ended with him being drowned in a pond and as a wandering spirit.
Slowly Luella approached him and grasped his hand, squeezing it tightly. Tears ran down her face, her son was back. Even the stoic Martin, he swears that where Noll got it from, eyes were watering from the upheaval of emotions.
Leaning into Gene's chest Luella said "Noll saw you die? He's never wrong?" She was profoundly confused by the turn of events. Real psychics hardly ever had misleading visions, it was already hard enough having normal visions never mind made up ones.
"I died" He admitted to the stunned Luella and Martin.
"But you're standing here alive?" A puzzled Martin responded.
"I was supposed to be dead… but I was revived?" Gene tried to clear the mystery "We think it has something to do with Mai, I was her spirit guide and somehow when we said goodbye I woke up?" He was unsure himself what had happened but he needed to explain for Martin sake. His father, being the scientific mind he was, would bring someone in to exorcise him if he thought he was a spirit inhabiting his body.
Silence stretched as everyone turned to the blushing Mai, she was supposed to be the mediator but in the end she had nothing to do.
"You brought him back?" Luella asked her pointedly
"Maybe?" Mai said shyly.
Luella could only hug the girl, nothing could put into words how grateful for bringing her baby back.
And there you go, chapter two done! Struggling to think where to go from here, any ideas appreciated. Maybe next we'll be seeing a bit of Mai/Naru action?.
