Epilogue

Day 5

Her eyelids were incredibly heavy and Mai didn't want to put the effort into lifting them.

She was, strangely enough, rather comfortable where she was. Perhaps this was heaven?

No, Mai thought as she heard someone screech in the background and a loud person hiss "be quiet".

This definitely was not heaven.

Slowly, Mai's eyes opened and she flinched at the light that immediately attacked her vision. Mai lifted her hand to hide her eyes from the artificial lighting, but it seemed to seep through her heavy fingers anyway.

"Oh, thank god you're awake," Ayako breathed. Ayako turned up, and Mai wasn't quite sure who else was in the room. "Call Naru. Tell him Mai's awake."

There was the sound of a door opening and closing and Mai ignored it, instead trying to focus on anything with either her mind or eyes. Her entire body felt numb; her mouth had a strange taste in it, and her eyes felt as though she'd been baking them in the sun.

And then she remembered what had happened and dragged herself to sit up immediately.

"Ayako," Mai gasped, choking now. Her throat. It was so incredibly dry, and Mai had to blink in order to register the world around her. She was in a hospital ward now, by the looks of it, and lines of beds were arranged around her.

Mai's eyes flashed, a little more alert, as she remembered Gene and Hiroma sensei. Both of them had been corporeal – to her at least – before she'd passed out. Were either of them here now?

"We sent Shiba-san to the hospital," Ayako said, seeming to misinterpret Mai's querying glance. "We were going to send you too, but you weren't too serious, and there was a slight problem with that, so we could only get a doctor to check up on you. He said you were alright, and hopefully he didn't stuff up, because the man was a little keen on getting out of here."

Mai frowned, now giving up on her search for the two spirits. Neither Gene nor Hiroma sensei were around, that was for sure. She turned back to Ayako. "What do you mean?" she asked.

Ayako's lips pursed and she looked over to Bou-san, who was sitting beside her. The monk appeared rather grave before he spoke. "Well—"

"Now that you're awake," Bou-san interjected loudly, "do you mind telling us who-" he pointed at the far end of the room, right at the same woman that had shared the cell with Mai; Mai's heart skipped a beat when she saw her – "that is?"

"Bou-san," Ayako let out, clearly exasperated. Mai had a feeling that they'd argued about this while she'd slept. Clearly, Ayako saw thought that the woman was of less importance than Bou-san did. Mai didn't blame Bou-san for being curious though. Whoever this woman was, she was rather frightening.

"Well of course I want to know who she is," Bou-san replied defensively. "She's obviously not a spirit if we can all see her, and I know for a fact that she's not human. She literally blew open that door when we were trying to get to Mai in that cell because she probably thought we were being too slow. And she's done nothing but stare at Mai for the last seventeen hours while she was unconscious."

Seventeen hours? Had it been that long already? Mai hadn't even known.

"Then why don't you try to exorcise her?" Ayako demanded.

"You think I haven't?" Bou-san snapped. Clearly, he was in a rather foul mood. "Nothing works against her. She doesn't even feel it."

"I didn't even think of using the mantras against her," Mai murmured, staring at the woman. She still faced Mai intensely, only now, she was standing at the edge of the hospital bed. The miko and monk had gone to great lengths, Mai saw, to ensure that the woman had a lot of space to herself.

Now that Mai saw her in light, she could see that the woman was dressed in rather unusual clothing. An unusually long headdress draped over both shoulders of the woman, and beneath that, she wore dress-like outfit beneath that flowed right to her feet, though only one shoulder seemed to be sleeved. The clothing was white, which seemed to be in match with her stark white skin, and her hair was the ashen-white that one would expect from an elderly lady, yet strangely, this woman's face was rather young, and she would have been in her early thirties at the latest. Mai could see that the woman had a rather attractive face, too, even though her eyes were still completely pupil.

"We found her with you when we entered that cell," Ayako said.

"She was with me when I was in the cell earlier," Mai said absently.

"She doesn't have the same energy as the others," Bou-san told Mai. "So she's definitely from somewhere else."

Mai nodded, though she hardly processed what the monk was saying. Who was this woman? Was she even related to the case?

"The exorcism must have set those ghosts off," Bou-san murmured. "There were about seven of them, so when we were trying to make way into there, the others set the cell on fire. We were trying to break into the cell when she—" Bou-san nodded in the woman's direction – "busted it open. Naru-bou carried you out, and he said he'd be back soon."

Mai nodded. Everything seemed a little vague still, so she figured she'd be safest if she just nodded.

"Caecilia," Ayami's voice whispered. Mai, now suddenly alert, cast an apprehensive look around the ward, but she couldn't see the other girl anywhere. It was as though her cousin's voice had travelled in with the night breeze, flowing quietly into the room. Something else was said – an order – in another language and the woman finally pulled her gaze from Mai. Her body swirled, its figure playing as though it had never been solid in the first place and eventually, the woman vanished.

Mai blinked.

"Now where did she go?" Bou-san asked sceptically. He turned from left to right, looking around the room as though he expected the woman to jump out from behind the curtain.

"I think she was with Ayami," Mai said, her mind catching a better hint of what had been going on.

Bou-san didn't look impressed. "Domjouji Ayami has a demon at her disposable? How different is she to Mimisaki Raidon then?"

Mai wasn't in the mood to hear more insults directed at her cousin, so she merely ignored the monk. Ayako turned over to Bou-san and asked him who Mimisaki Raidon was, but the monk didn't respond. When he didn't say anything, Ayako turned back to Mai, for once not bothering to argue with the monk.

"You should rest some more," Ayako said. Mai nodded and settled back onto the bed again. Immediately, she was grateful not to have to support herself and slowly closed her eyes. It seemed as though her lack of sleep in the past few days was catching up to her now. Despite her efforts however, Mai felt a little restless, so she couldn't quite get back to sleep. She must have laid there for awhile, because Ayako started talking again, this time in more hushed tones.

"I think Naru must still be talking to the police. This is when I am, for once, grateful for that Domjouji girl. If it hadn't been for her, Mai might have been taken into police custody. I can't believe that Officer actually thought that Mai was a suspect."

"Don't be too grateful of Domjouji Ayami. I'm wondering more and more about her though," Bou-san said quietly. His tone was light, but Mai could hear him still. "I contacted the Miharu family before and they said that Domjouji Ayami is part of the Caecilius clan, but what kind of person like that would have a demon at her control? I remember the Caecilius clan being descended from Rome. They were a vindictive bunch, too, and the Miharu family sends their regards every year which is ignored by Ayami. Not everyone gets the Miharus' attention, and she ignores them. She falls in deep with the dark arts too, and we still don't know who the owner of that house we were at is. Is Mai really safe with her? I think Mai should stay as far away from her as possible."

"I trust Mai to know what she's doing," Ayako said, her voice a little snappy. "I don't like Ayami either, but Mai's the one with latent sensitivity and she finds it alright. Who are you to argue?"

Bou-san huffed, but he didn't seem to argue. Mai almost smiled. It was always Ayako who clashed with Bou-san, and Mai was glad to have the woman around.

Day 6

Who was that woman? That was Caecilia. She's my most powerful familiar. Or shikigami by your terms. I'm sorry if she scared you, but she's the only one that was powerful enough to materialise immediately by your side. She can transcend time and space, which is a rather handy tool in my opinion. All the others would generally need to transform themselves into something in order to assist someone that is not contracted to them, and they'd still need to travel there, and then they wouldn't make it on time.

I'm glad you were not in need of her services though.

- Ayami.

If a demon blowing up a door did not count as 'in need of services', Mai didn't want to know what did.

Shaking her head, Mai quickly typed a reply to Ayami. She asked about Ayami's studies, how she was going, and if she had any more news on Raidon, and a few questions about Mai's personal powers, though she was careful not to hint anything about Gene. Mai trusted Ayami not to tell anyone anything about Gene if Mai asked her to, but it would probably be betraying Naru's trust if Mai were to tell her cousin about him.

Mai and Naru never breached the subject of Gene again. At least not yet. Mai did tell herself that she would tell him the next time she saw his twin, but Mai had no idea when that would be. Mai had about a million questions to ask Naru, but she knew better than to be nosy. In due time, Naru would tell her if he wanted to. Unfortunately, she hadn't dreamt of Gene since he'd told her his name, and her sleep itself had been horrid. Maybe if she went on another case, that would change.

As for Hiroma sensei: Naru had called her an omen: a sign that foretold the good or bad in the future. Clearly, in this case, she had been a warning to the victims of the coming of the other ghosts. Mai kind of saw her as a late guardian for the school. After all, the woman had said that a teacher never truly quitted, so did that mean that the woman would be staying there forever?

Later on that day, they left Karakura High School, and Mai saw Hiroma sensei again, one last time, sitting on the swings. As the van had pulled out of the driveway, the elder had raised her hand to wave at Mai.

Mai had smiled and waved back.

29.09.2008: Dadummm...and that's all. It's all I have at the moment. Okay, I lied. I have the first chapter of the next segment too, and about 3/4 of the second chapter. But yeah, I've been doing assignments, so I don't know when I'll start posting it. Thanks for reading the story! Hope the ending was 'Ghost Hunt'-like. I'll probably set the sequel in a week at the latest.

Many thanks to: Miss Koneko, Aoi Faith, Gabryell-P, bigtomato (LOL the chapter title 'cellmate' is in reference to Mai's sweet friend. As you have seen in this chapter, Ayami is forever the helpful cousin ;)), ONIX-21, canadianviolet (Naru is a loving knight in shining armour, as you can see; I had Mai's 'to-do' list play because writing a 'life flashing before your eyes' would take a little long. Doest that sound lazy?), crazymel2008, Ayjah, Moons-chan, Ariana Taniyama, Dainty Sue (LOL I'm glad you like our male defenders. THey are kind of like a team of knights, eh?), Lady Light, Angelic Kitsune, Sorachan, Dracos-gurl123, and lunamoongoddess.

Until next time, guys! Cheers.