Yo! Thank you to all readers so far!
"Mai-san, can I ask you something?" asked Yasuhara, breaking the silence that had fallen.
Mai blinked, but nodded. "Of course you can. What is it?"
Yasuhara exchanged a glance with Madoka, then said, "Does the name Jack Midnight sound familiar to you?"
Mai seemed a little confused by the obviously foreign name (the rest of them were too), and while she thought about it for a minute, she eventually shook her head. "No, I'm sorry, but I don't remember. I guess at this point it's probably just another thing my mind's made me forget. Why?"
Yasuhara hesitated. "We found records of a man by that name who lived with your family for nearly three years before his death. You would have been three when it happened, so it's more that you can't remember due to your age rather than anything else."
"He...lived with us? And if I was three, then it was in our first house too, because we moved after dad and Ryou-nii died." Mai found herself frowning again, thinking.
There was a long silence where no one was willing to interrupt Mai's train of thought. Considering everything else that had happened so far, maybe it really would be better for her to remember as much as possible now.
"I do...vaguely remember a man," Mai said slowly. Her eyes were locked on the floor and her brow was furrowed. "A tall man. Really tall. Ryou-nii and May used to play with him, but I… I think I was scared of him? I don't remember why." She looked at Yasuhara. "You said he died, right? What was his cause of death?"
"It's listed as unknown," said Yasuhara.
"I double checked it," said Madoka, "and I even managed to find a copy or his death certificate. It was listed as unknown there too. There was a note by the medical examiner that said it seemed like some form of asphyxiation, but it also looked like his heart stopped and he just dropped dead for no reasonable reason. He couldn't conclude anything, and so listed the cause as unknown."
Mai nodded slowly, and if possible, her brow furrowed even further. "I… Was it May? Didn't I…?" She was muttering to herself now, clearly trying to piece incredibly vague memories together. "I'm not fully sure," she said a moment later, "but I'm getting the feeling that May-that May was the one who-who killed him, and I… I took the blame for it."
Quite a few of them wanted to protest that, but Naru was the first one to speak, before any of the rest of them could.
"Why do you say that?"
Mai shook her head. "I remember something about a ball rolling too far and running after it, and then finding the man-Jack, on the ground not moving. And I remember May crying a lot. And I-i feel like I was the one who said I did it." She looked at them again. "But none of those are solid memories. I can't remember any of it clearly."
"Are you certain that that is at least the gist of what happened?" asked Lin.
Mai nodded. "I am."
"Mai, if you remember Shin-san, do you also remember your step-father?" said Naru abruptly.
"Noll-"
Naru shook his head. "Do you remember, Mai?"
Mai's frown only deepened at the words though. "Step-father…?" she repeated slowly. "Step-father… Oh, oh, I think… Mom remarried when I was little, didn't she? And-and dad was actually our step-dad. And he brought Shin-nii with him." She looked up at them. "Right?"
Naru nodded. "That's right."
When Naru didn't say anything more, Mai raised a brow. "Does this have something to do with what Ryou-nii said?"
"It does."
"But it's not everything, is it?"
"It isn't."
Lin turned back to the monitors suddenly and began typing quickly. Then a second later, said, "There's been a large temperature drop near the stairs. No visuals."
Naru nodded and was at Lin's side in an instant, leaning over his shoulder to confirm things himself, and then barking out orders at the rest of them.
Eager to do some work after the highly emotional conversations they'd had, they jumped into action.
That's it for now. This was one of the VERY edited chapters, now that I'm looking back at it. I changed the original timeline too, because if I remember right, the Jack stuff wasn't originally brought up until a bit later. Anyway, looking forward to reviews! Laterz!