Thursday 12th April (ten months later…)

Day one…

I was settling into life as a fourteen year old better than I had thought I would originally, it was shocking what kids could get up to. I had been up to so much in these last few months I had almost forgotten to stop something very important from happening…Gene's death.

It hadn't been easy and it was still biting me in the ass in ways that I don't even want to know about but the guy was still alive and kicking. Thankfully he only knew me by me alias, Nate Webber. Otherwise I think I would have been attacked by half of the parapsychological community by now. I liked that no one could find me and if having Yukimaru manifest and pretend to be a male version of me was how I did it then so be it.

All my months with Yukimaru had finally come to this, Naru and Lin were going to be here anytime now if the stories I had heard about not only the old school house but the fact that Oliver Davis was looking for Nate Webber to thank him for saving his brother life where anything to go by I was looking forward to seeing him again.

My days had been spent at school trying not to fall asleep, having long since finished high school I was finding it hard not to. Though my teachers seemed to think I was a genius as every report I handed in read like a detailed doctorate thesis, that however was not my fault. Naru had insisted on every report being detailed to the point of recklessness, nothing would be left out as it could spell the ridicule of many Dr.'s of the Paraphysiological community of which I was one. So the bright side of all this was that my school left me alone for the more part.

My afternoons were spent in the classroom after class had finished telling ghost stories like I had the first time I had gone through high school, I think that the only difference this time was that I had a fan club… I liked to tell stories about all the cases I had investigated working for SPR as well as the ones I had done alone in my past…future? I tried to keep it all relatively tame but in the end, the classroom was still full of teenage boys and girls shaking in fear that little old me could come up with something so scary.

Nighttime however was a different thing altogether that was when a different Mai came out to play. The thirty-four year old grab that ghost by the balls and raise hell bitch I had once been known as would rock the streets of Tokyo looking for ghosts and the like. I had taken to training my skills like crazy and working with Yukimaru along the way, in the last ten months our bound as master and Shiki had if it was possible only gotten stronger. We would take cases of the paranormal persuasion and I found that I liked working independently and without SPR. I had forgotten that after working with SPR both Japanese and English divisions for what seemed like a million years when in reality it was only ten.

Most of the cases were bogus but a good many were not and happily none of them were too hard for Yukimaru and I to handle ourselves.

So now I found myself sitting on a desk in the classroom after hours like I did every weekday telling ghost stories and listening to them as well. I was currently trying not to laugh as the stupid ones my class mates were coming up with I mean really the old school house wasn't haunted! There were at least ten of us in the room but only three of us actually telling stories, which is how I found myself playing the most stupid game alive.

"One…" I said my voice was deadpan and not impressed.

"Two…" Whispered Kyoko on of my friends, she was way too into this for my taste.

"Three…?" Exclaimed Makoto, the third girl telling stories that day, the whole idea was that every time you told a story you would turn off a light by the end there would be one light left over signifying that a ghost was present… like I said it was stupid.

"Four….!" Said a male voice into the now silent room, nine of the ten people in the class room screamed 'ghost' in surprise and five of them hid under tables the last one, me, well I just laughed my ass off at the kids. That was when the light turned one and it just got funnier from there because now I really could see my classmates hiding under desks with their asses sticking up in the air and the heads under their arms.

"Oh god! That's priceless you guys, why in gods named do you insist on telling ghost stories when the first person to walk in the room get greeted like that?" I howled in laughter my whole body was shaking with the force of my laughter. Turning to look at the new comer I was shocked out of my laughter, it was Naru.

Only this wasn't the Naru that I knew, this was someone altogether different. He was young and was missing the lines around his eye from all his frowning. His eyes which had at one point been cold and calculating like they were now had in my memory been dark and warm after the years that Masuko had spent healing his torn heart. His black suit wasn't Italian made and he wasn't carting around his briefcase like I was used to seeing him do and if there was ever a thing to remind me that this wasn't my lovable big brother it was the fact that he was shorter then I remembered him being. This was Kazuya Shibuya, not Naru.

"I was just walking by when I heard your voice, you were telling ghost stories right?" His voice wasn't even the same as I remember where was that dark chocolate voice that made Masuko melt and women kind run after him?

"Oh wow, please tell me that that was you speaking just now!" said one of the girls in the room as Kyoko finally stopped clinging to my arms.

"Yes it was, I'm sorry for frightening you all so much I didn't mean too." Naru said as he smiled the world's fakest smile at us. I remembered this I had thought I was ready to face him but looking at the person he was and comparing it to the person I knew he would one day be, I didn't knew what to do my mouth froze and tears gathered in my eyes. I watched in my mind's eye as Naru died and the tears in my eyes fell down my checks and into the front of my uniform. It was moments later the I realized that I was staring at Naru crying for not reason over a person who's name I wasn't supposed to even know… Shit.

"Mai? Are you alright what happened, I thought you were laughing did he scare you" said Kyoko as she hugged me trying to provide comfort. Now I was stuck what the hell I was supposed to say to that either I was scared shitless by Naru or I was the weird girl that cried…

"Umm… well he looks like someone I knew once, that's all Kyoko. I'm sorry for crying it's just you shocked me that's all." I whispered with a watery smile, it was sometimes best to just tell the truth and see what happened.

"My names Shibuya Kazuya it's nice to meet all of you, I'm interested in finding out who I seem to remind you of. I'm sorry if I frightened you." Naru said and for a moment he really did look sorry but then his emotions disappeared from his eyes as he was bound to do often.

"Shibuya? Well his name was Davis so I don't think you would have known him that and he was British as well always made for an interesting conversation when he would curse in English." I laughed again remember Naru whenever he realized his cup of tea had gone cold it was always an amusing sight. Seconds later I realized what I had said and how Naru would take it… Eugene shit how could I have forgotten about his twin! Gods I was stupid sometimes!

"Well anyways you sure do look a lot like him… uncanny really." I said as I stared into the dark eyes of my once and future boss… now that I thought of it, this was a wonderful reason for Naru to hire me! He was only in Japan to look for Gene's savior and if he took what I had said to heart then he would assume that it was Gene that I was talking about and not him! I was a genius!

"Wait a moment did you say Shibuya? As in Shibuya Psychic Research? That place just down off Gopenzaca?" I asked now that I was over my little episode I was planning something evil so evil in fact that Yukimaru would love me forever more if he were here to see it. I watched as Naru's head inflated with the size of his ego at the fact that some random person who might have known his brother said she knew of him, this was going to be good.

"Well yes I'm its founder here in Japan." He said as his chest puffed out unconsciously my Naru would have never done that and it just showed how young he was.

"Oh my God! You work with Lin Koujo right! It's said that he's one of the leading spiritualists that has come out of Hong Kong in years, besides his father of course. Koujo's written so many innovative and inspiring papers about many of the paranormal fields of study. Though I've never understood why he compares everything to Chinese practices and theory, I don't really care he's a hunk… is he here?" I gasped out in false delight savoring the look of shock on Naru's face was priceless! I was momentarily saddened but the thought of killing Naru's ego but then looking into the disbelieving eyes of the narcissistic ass that I loved so much I couldn't help but take a little bit of glee from it all.

"You know about Lin?" Naru said as he tried to regain his composure.

"Well ya, I mean he is one of the leading minds in paranormal research to date isn't he? It's a cool job he has seeing as he get paid to sit around writing fiction all day… ghost possession and spiritual powers I mean come on its interesting but I thought most people would grow out of that stage. He isn't as well-known as Oliver Davis either but he makes more sense in the topics he talks about, that and he's far more objective and his papers have a boat load more personality the that old flea bag Davis! I really enjoy reading his work… that and his way good looking with all the black hair and penetrating gaze. Looking at him I just want to proclaim undying love and marriage… even if he thinks that ghosts are real, I could still live with a crazy person as long as they look like him!" I babbled smiling stupidly as I watched the look of shock turn into horror on Naru's face as he realized the for once he was talking to someone else's fan girl and not his own. Sometimes messing with Naru was just too much fun.

"Yes well…?" Naru stumbled obviously lost for words. That's right ladies and gentlemen I Mai Tamiyama managed to make the great Naru… aka: Oliver Davis SPECHLESS! And then it was all over and Naru decided to go with the intellectual things I had said, ignoring the other fan girlish things that had come out of my mouth in the hopes of once again finding the proverbial solid ground.

"Though Lin is very well known I find his work to be somewhat one sided, as you said it focuses almost entirely on the Chinese mysticism and magical practices. Dr. Davis is a much better source of information, although there has been a resent established researcher by the name of Nate Webber, in the last few months he had published more works then the Davis twins and Lin combined in their careers. I find him to be truly knowledgeable and he has a sense of humor that you may find invigorating considering the topics that he chooses to discuss are rather morbid. Tell me have you had time to read any of his works? They've only just recently reached the public." Said Naru with a level voice once more, well there when that plan though I was somewhat surprised that he didn't toot his own horn so to say but that he was rather impressed with Nate Webber… aka: ME was a shocker.

Having gotten bored with in the last ten months I had started to research my chosen field of study, parapsychology. I had found that the papers were sorely lacking in information and whatever information that was to be had was half correct and then left hanging for someone else to finish research on. Well that someone else had turned out to be me, after three months of cases and catching up in school work and not to forget saving Eugene I had taken to writing one and then two and then three and more and more. All of the things I wrote about where things that I had learned over twenty years of ghost hunting, some of it was well known fact and some of it was not but what could not be said about any of my writings was that it was wrong.

After twenty years of working my ass off hunting these things I had encountered some of the darkest of spirits and demons gods and poltergeists. Like Naru had said many of the things that I, as Nate Webber was known for writing about were indeed morbid. I didn't know which case he was referring to but I could have been anything from the Urado thing to the Yabisu thing and then everything else I had written about in the last few months. I remember I had written about the first time I had encountered a winter spirit turned demon that had taken over a small village and frozen it in eternal winter, half the village population had died by the time I had finished with that case.

"I got my hand on his latest work, I think the topic was about Omyouji was it not?" I asked him wonder just how closely he read those papers. If he were paying attention like he implied he would know that everything I wrote about was heavily influenced by my favored skill, one I loved so much I had gone ahead and mastered it. I had been able to stand side by side Lin and not be embarrassed by my skills as they were equal to his and far greater in other ways, the man couldn't spell craft if his life depended on it and his warding sucked. Mind you he rocked Shigon a skill he had taught to Naru and I didn't know anything about it so we were vastly different in our skill sets.

"Yes well most of the things he writes about have that in common leading me to believe that the man himself is an Omyouji, something Lin detests as he swears it is a Chinese art and therefore cannot be mastered by anyone other than the Chinese." He said.

At this point we had been talking for many minutes and the kids in the classroom were staring at me like I was from outer space. I couldn't help but smile Naru though young was still Naru and I had once upon a time loved talking about our work with him now however wasn't the time and as it was getting to be near to six o'clock I had a case that was waiting for me on the other side of town, as it was I was going to have to go get Yukimaru who had opted to stay home. Just as well all the equipment was at the apartment anyways so one last stop on the road to finding ghosts and the knowledge of the afterlife.

It was my cue to sign out as it were and go hunting.

"Well it's been fun but it's late and I've got work to go to, it was nice meeting you Shibuya, send my love to Koujo please! Bye guys!" I said and I'll have everyone knew that I did not run from the room! I walked with meaning and swiftness, I did not run!

And as I got home I found myself yelling as I opened the door, "Yukimaru you'll never guess who I messed with today!" and with that the day was over and the night was just about to begin.