Inevitability:
Chapter 10:
Naru was out of his room like a shot. He sprinted down the hallway until he came to the right room. He pushed the door gently to make the minimum amount of noise as it would not do any good to accidently wake up Mai.
The room was in complete darkness, with only some illumination from the lights in the hallway. He focused his eyes to discern Ayako kneeling next to Mai's futon.
Silently Ayako stood up and walked past him to the door, leaving him alone with the amnesiac. For a moment the only sounds in the room were their breathing.
"Who are you?" a familiar voice, inflected with sleep, asked.
"Naru," he said immediately.
There was a sighing sound. "Who am I?"
Naru began to add all the clues that he had been given into the equation along with his knowledge of sleep talking. He replied with the only answer that made sense.
"Maaya's unconsciousness. Also known as Mai Taniyama."
"Yes. I've been waiting for you..." Mai said, her voice sounding slightly different to usual due to the fact that her body was asleep.
"Sorry for being late," he apologised. "But you didn't exactly make it easy to find you. The name change was confusing."
"Stop complaining, narcissist. I did all I could to get you here. I can't bring back my memories so it has been hard."
"Doing all you could entails using Astral Projection to appear as a ghost to Maaya?"
"It was supposed to get SPR here with the hint being that it was only visible to one person, but I realised that it wasn't big enough."
"So you pulled Maaya down the stairs and created a spiritual disturbance, waking up two ghosts in the process?"
Naru had deduced this when Maaya had given a description of what the first ghost had been wearing. The description had matched Mai's school uniform exactly, he had recognised it instantly as that was what she had been wearing when they had first met at her high school. From then on it had been fairly easy to work out what had really been going on at the ryokan.
"I was getting desperate and I didn't think the idea through," Mai admitted.
"You didn't just lure me over here to make me take responsibility for..." he trailed off, unwilling to say it to Mai.
"There's more to it than that," she replied, sounding slightly amused. "I wouldn't mind having my memory back and not being trapped in my unconsciousness."
"And on the astral plane," he pointed out. "All of the supposed attacks really took place when Maaya was asleep. I noticed that Hana Kudou-san said that her daughter was the only one to see the first ghost and there were no visible marks on Maaya until the other two ghosts came along. Maaya herself said that she never dreamed, it was just that she couldn't remember that they were dreams."
In her sleep Maaya twitched slightly and Naru watched her with bated breath, hoping that she wasn't going to wake up and sever the connection.
"Mai, are you still there?" he asked worriedly.
"...Yes but not for long. I can't normally speak as long as this because I get blocked by the fact that she doesn't want to remember. Ayako provided me with a gap in her will so I can speak fully. You're going to exorcise?"
"Yes."
"Jourei or Jorei?" she questioned, referring to the peaceful or the more violent method.
"Jorei. They hurt you." Ever since he had seen her cuts and burn he had wanted to wring the ghosts' throats. The closest he was ever going to get to that was doing an exorcism.
Maaya's breathing stopped being even and steady and the gaps between each breath began to get shorter.
"Bye, Naru," Mai said and he knew that she had gone.
"Goodbye Mai," he returned the dismissal and left the room. If all went to plan he would be seeing her again the next day. If it didn't... he would lose her again.
He opened the door of his room to find the omnouji, physic and priestess playing with his son. He gave them a cold look.
"That child needs to go to sleep. Matsuzaki-san, Hara-san, you can go back now."
Ayako appraised him thoughtfully. "You have solved the case?"
He nodded.
"Care to actually tell us this time?"
He took that to be a reference to some of the cases where he had left them out of the loop until the conclusion of the case. However he had no intention of doing that this time. He couldn't afford to have any of them acting on out of date information that no longer applied to the case.
"I will tell you tomorrow, I want everyone to be well rested," he hinted.
Without any further coercion Ayako and Masako left the room, sensing that their boss was completely serious. Ayako waved good bye to Yakumo before closing the door behind her.
"By any chance, did you talk to Mai?" Lin asked interestedly, picking up on the fact that he had been very undecided earlier and now he seemed to be sure about what to do.
"I did. The idiot brought the attacks on herself, but she cannot undo it so I will have to," Naru informed him as he got into his futon followed by Yakumo.
He doesn't sound like he was forced, Lin noted amusedly to himself. It had always been interesting to observe the reaction that Mai managed to elicit from Naru. If the case went to plan and Mai regained her missing memories, there would be a very different set of reaction to observe.
"Did Mai say anything about her amnesia?" he asked and turned out the light, plunging the room into inky blackness.
"It appears that Maaya is very determined not to dwell on it, making it hard for any stimuli to have any effect on it. I think it might possibly be because she does not want to be disappointed by who the father of her son is."
"That is quite the situation. Most amnesiacs actually want their memories back."
"Mai has always been unique, it is fitting that even with amnesia, she is still one of a kind," Naru answered before yawning. "The boy is asleep already."
Lin smirked. It was typical for Naru not to refer to his son by name. Hopefully it would soon change...
Breakfast the following morning had more of a lively air than dinner the night before. The other members of SPR were not so intimidated by their boss, leading Naru to suspect that having his son clinging to him was making him lose his normal demeanour that made them slightly more respectful of him.
And that was before Yakumo accidently spilled milk on his raven black shirt. Everyone stifled giggles.
"Maaya, I thought you said that he was well behaved," Naru said to Maaya who was shaking with silent laughter.
"He normally is, but he seems to like you a lot. He might think that... you are his father figure," he answered thoughtfully with a strange glint in her eyes. Then the moment passed as she burst out laughing. "Just be glad that you didn't meet him as a baby, he would have puked up over you which would smell worse."
"I'm going to change," Naru said after a brief moment of silence.
Mai had been right after all. Maaya did black out any stimuli that would help her get her memory back. Maybe if he told her that he was the father... no, he still couldn't get over the fact that he had slept with her whilst drunk and had completely forgotten about it which would be quite the insult for her and would not help the situation.
In addition she didn't blush like Mai often did when looking at him, suggesting that she didn't like him a romantic way. Why had Mai liked him?
Because of Gene.
Uncharacteristically for him, he ruffled his hair in frustration before changing his shirt in a more calm manner. He couldn't lose it now. Once his parents found out about his child he would be under scrutiny and his mother would notice that he didn't really love Mai.
He didn't see Mai in a romantic way, but he had slept with her.
He ruffled his hair again, feeling genuinely confused for the first time in his life. Naru took a deep breath.
That dilemma could come after the exorcism.
He entered the dining room with his usual blank expression on his face and sat back down. However Lin sensed his turmoil. As if guessing all of his charge's thoughts, he said in a quiet tone:
"In vino veritas."
In wine there is truth.
Naru instantly knew what it meant. It was a fairly well known Latin phrase, fitting for the situation that he was in.
He must have some feelings for Mai as he had come on to her when he was drunk and it wasn't just because she had been the only female there, but he still couldn't see her in a romantic light.
Romance to Naru signified red roses and hearts, an unfortunate side effect on Valentine's Day.
Everyone apart from Maaya noticed the turbulence of expressions on his face which seemed to be the result of Lin's remark.
"It wasn't in English, was it?" Bou-san asked of the Australian priest.
John smiled wryly. "It was Latin and very applicable. Shibuya-san, remember that there is such a thing as fate."
"Ooh, are we giving Naru-chan some well meaning sounding advice? Well, always look below the surface of someone, it isn't all about appearances. Shonen?"
Yasuhara pushed his glasses up his nose, causing them to glint. "There is no such thing as coincidence, there is only the inevitable."
That was a point. Did the fact that he had run into the missing Mai within two days of returning to Japan, mean that they were connected by fate? It couldn't be a coincidence.
"My turn now, love isn't all about roses and hearts. It's about appreciating the object of your affection whether or not your feelings are reciprocated. It isn't about material things."
Naru's eyes widened slightly. Ayako was right. For all his intelligence he was lacking the basics.
"Hara-san, you haven't said anything yet," Ayako nudged her.
"I whole heartedly approve of your relationship with that person, but if you ever consider anyone else I will never help you out on a case again," Masako told him with an unusually dangerous glare, a contrast to her doll like appearance.
"I have no idea what you are talking about, but you should always try your best in whatever you do. If you have done your best then there is nothing more that you could have done," Maaya said softly with a caring smile.
The advice from everyone made Naru realised that he lucky to have employees like them who may not be the most considerate people, but it was undeniable that they always tried their best when the appropriate time came.
He glanced at Maaya involuntarily as he remembered Lin's comment and to his surprise he found that his face was heating up for some reason.
In vino veritas.
Two more chapters to go!