Inevitability

Chapter 7

"Um, I don't think that I properly heard what you said," Maaya said hesitantly. Surely he wasn't flirting with her?

Lin facepalmed and Ayako and Bou-san who had been about to come back in, sweat dropped.

Naru sighed. He was not seriously asking the question, he wanted to see if she reacted in any way, as he had asked her the exact same question before.

However in retrospect, it hadn't been the best question.

"I said: do you think I'm handsome?"

Maaya stared at him unbelievingly and flushed a tomato red. It did sound like he was flirting with her after all and it did sound familiar for some reason. She took in his pale skin that seemed almost translucent and his raven black hair and his sky blue eyes which were very nice to look at, but she felt as if there was something missing. She cocked her head to the side.

"Can you smile, please?"

The narcissist demonstrated his usual smile by simply stretching his mouth.

The amnesiac emitted an exasperated noise. "That's what's off about you. You don't smile properly and you have a cold demeanour."

"So you don't think that I'm handsome?" Naru said after recovering from the initial shock that Mai was being intuitive for once.

She waved her hand dismissively. "I'm sure most girls and some boys would think so, but it doesn't work for me."

"What would make me more handsome?"

By this point Lin had turned around in his chair to observe the scene while Bou-san and Ayako had eased open the door and were peeping through the gap.

Maaya reached out nervously and tickled him under the chin. Naru moved her hand away gently whilst he tried to deduce the reason for her sudden action.

"Maaya, what are you doing?"

"Trying to make you laugh so that I can see your real smile and decide if you are handsome or not," she answered as if it were obvious.

Unintentionally Naru smiled warmly. It was so like Mai to seriously consider his question and strive to give him a proper answer. No one else, besides Gene, had considered tickling him under the chin to make his genuinely smile.

Maaya beamed. "That was a good smile! It reached your eyes. You aren't too bad looking after all!"

He felt taken back by the depth of her smile which seemed to radiate happiness and sunshine.

"Thank you, Maaya," he said and stood up to return to his book. "The eavesdroppers can come in now."

The monk and priestess walked in with embarrassed faces at the scene they had witnessed.

"Sorry, we didn't want to interrupt your... moment together with Jou-chan," the monk laughed.

"Maybe I'm not giving you enough work," was Naru's simple answer as he sat back down next to Lin. "As Maaya is staying here, I might assign you some of her usual duties. Did you have anything left to do, Maaya?"

Maaya itched the back of her neck as she thought about it. "I was about to clean the shower area in the onsen, but it's all right, we don't have many guests and it doesn't really need cleaning."

Bou-san perked up. "Naru-chan, can we use the onsen? The old lady and I are exhausted from all that exorcising and I'm sure John-san is too."

Their boss considered the request for a moment. The monk and priestess were obviously not going to be doing anything useful for a while and if they stayed in the base all day they would be too noisy and distracting.

"Fine. You may use the onsen, but report back here at half past four. If any of you are late, you will be taking up Maaya's cleaning duties."

"Yes boss," Bou-san answered in English before departing, followed by Ayako. "Have fun with Naru-chan, Maaya-chan."

The amnesiac pouted. Now she was definitely stuck in the base with nothing to do and a silent black haired man and a narcissist for company. She considered waking up her son to have some non narcissistic company, but she knew that was too selfish so she settled for making some tea.

"Tea," Naru ordered instantly as soon as she filled the kettle.

Maaya poured the tea into a teacup and held it out to him. When Naru reached out for it, she moved it away out of his reach.

"What are you doing, Maaya?"

"I'm bored. Can you lend me a book to read? If you do I will give you the tea," she smiled sweetly.

"I am capable of making my own tea," Naru grumbled as he reached in one of the cardboard boxes on the floor.

Well why don't you, Lin asked silently in his head. The amnesiac Mai was catching onto Naru's personality quickly and she seemed to be less shy towards Naru than her former counterpart and she didn't seem to be adverse to manipulating him.

The narcissist's hand encountered a familiar book at the bottom of the box. It wasn't exactly case solving reading material, but it had been written by a very good author and would give Maaya some hints about her ability to predict the future in her dreams.

He picked it up, then a thought struck him. "Maaya, can you remember your dreams?"

She shook her head. "Not a single one in the past two years."

Naru handed her the book and inwardly smirked as he watched her mouth out the author's name.

"Dr.. O..river... Davis," she read hesitantly.

"Your English pronunciation is still terrible," he muttered before speaking in a normal tone. "The author's name is Dr. Oliver Davis. He is a famous scientist, the monk you saw earlier is a diehard fan of his."

"What is he famous for?" Maaya questioned suspiciously

"He is well known in certain circles for his PK. In a demonstration he threw a 50kg block of aluminium against a wall. There is a video of it, but not many people have seen it."

Her eyes widened until they were as big as saucers. "Really!? Have you seen the video?"

Without any trace of the amusement that he was feeling inside, he answered in a serious tone. "I have a copy. If you behave I will show it to you."

"I will!" Maaya said happily and looked down at the title of the book which was also in English with some unpronounceable words. "...This book isn't in English, is it?"

"The original is, however that one is the Japanese translation."

She sighed in relief. The last thing she wanted to do now was have to be in the same room as the narcissist and have to struggle through a book with lots of complicated English words.

So she sat back down and started to read. One look at the contents showed that even in her language, the book was going to be hard to read. PK meant nothing to her as did Astral Projection.

Discreetly Naru glanced at her and swallowed a smile at the sight of her face which was deep in concentration. Being Naru he couldn't resist a pithy comment.

"You never know, your IQ might go up a few points by reading that."

Maaya glared back at him. "Anything is better than being in love with myself, Naru-cisstic Naru-chan!"

The aforementioned narcissist raised his eyebrows. Two years ago Mai would have answered back, but her retorts would have never been that good. She had obviously matured a little. Unintentionally he eyes moved from her face to her body which appeared to be curvier than it had previously been.

Once he realised that he had been checking out Mai, his idiot tea maker; an amnesiac, a ghost magnet and the mother of his son, he hastily resumed reading again.

Lin took pity on him and decided to distract him for a while. "Any ideas about the case?"

Naru looked up from his book. "A few, but I want to make sure that I'm absolutely correct before I decide on preventative measures."

"I get the impression that the two violent ghosts are a couple," Lin said to start Naru off.

"Yes, the "leave us alone" was the hint. The man and woman are possibly lovers and Maaya has upset them in some way and it has to be a recent thing, based on her testimony. That said, I'm finding it hard to fit the first ghost into the equation. We are missing puzzle pieces."

"Maybe Yasuhara-san will give them to us when he comes back."

Naru flipped through his case notes again and realised that he was missing a physical description of the first ghost.

"Maaya, did you ever see what the first ghost looked like?"

"Hmm, not their face, but I did see their clothes."

After she told him exactly what she had seen, Naru's brain began to put everything together in some semblance of an order. The ghost had been wearing a school uniform that Maaya did not recognise.

"I think I'm beginning to understand this case a little more."

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