Shellsan: So here it is. The long awaited explanation
Naru: Don't get too excited it's boring and full on with the fake hypothesis' she calls Science
Mai: Leave Shellsan alone! She did her best to make it plausible!
Shellsan: It's alright Mai. I hope everyone enjoys it though and remember, there is no way I own ghost hunt in any shape or form
Everyone turned to look at Martin. With a sigh Mai nodded. "I guess I should explain everything now then…"
Lin gave her a hard look. "Yes, explain everything."
The underlying tone made it clear for the petite girl to know exactly what he was talking about. It was clear that she really didn't really have much of a choice at this point.
Clearing her throat she looked around the room. "Okay… I suppose this will be easier if you guys ask me questions and I answer them the best I can." She decided, motioning to Naru.
Nodding, he thought for a moment. "How were you inside the room?" He asked eventually.
Mai gave him wry grin, it figures Naru would ask this question first of all things.
Taking a sip of her tea she began to explain. "Ah that. It was an experiment of sorts. And before you say something about tests being dangerous and all that, this was for an ongoing theory of mine. It just so happened that I was able to test it using myself. Yasu can explain it better but basically I astral projected myself to her spirit using a complicated technique that involves following the aura of a spirit."
She motioned towards Yasu to explain in more detail.
Nodding Yasu continued. "It's like Mai said only a lot more complicated. In one of your published papers you mentioned that theoretically one spirit can find another spirit purely because of the difference in auras and therefore that another person could find a spirit using similar techniques."
Looking over at Naru, he waited for confirmation.
Confused, Naru nodded. "Yes but I also stated that this was purely theoretical and would take many years of training to accomplish due to the difference in aura's between a human spirit and that of the dead." He recalled easily.
He furrowed his brows in concentration as he tried to figure out where they were going with this. The others were nearly as confused – if not more so -, unsure as to where this was going.
"Right, well Mai theorised that if she were to astral project then it would be easier for her to reach out towards other spirits aura's since she'd be on the same plane of existence at the current time and in turn be able to take her spirit form to where that other spirit was without knowing where they actually are."
Everyone looked over at him then at Mai and then back at Yasu once more. "So you're saying that you devised this theory?" He asked slowly, looking over at Mai.
The brunette flushed slightly under his gaze. "Well yeah…"
Martin sat shocked for a moment before he broke out of his stupor. "This sounds an awful lot like an entrance paper I marked for the next school year…" He commented suspiciously.
Grinning, Yasu looked over at Mai proudly. "That's because it was Mai who wrote it. I haven't introduced myself fully yet. I'm Osamu Yasuhara, previously a researcher and occasional helper on SPR cases and one of your future students for the year – on scholarship no less."
Gesturing to Mai, he continued. "This would be Mai Taniyama, you female scholarship student, and ex-assistant to Oliver at SPR. Pleased to meet you professor."
He was mindful to hold his hand out and not bow and to keep the order of names, first and then second because that was the culture.
His eyes widened slightly and Martin took a moment to overcome his shock for the second time that day.
Luella laughed a little in delight. "So you two are the ones Martin couldn't stop talking about that would be attending his classes this year. What a coincidence. I'm very sorry for his forgetful mind, it's a pleasure to meet you once more." She cut in, motioning for her husband to shake Yasu hand.
Almost automatically, he reached over and shook Yasu's hand. "Well then I look forward to working with you – both of you- throughout your future years." Mai was given a pointed look and she couldn't help but smile at him for it.
Naru was still a little shocked, along with Madoka and Lin about the new revelation. They'd known about the two of them studying but the scholarships and the fact that they were in Martins class remained to be a surprise.
"I wasn't aware that the class you were taking for parapsychology was Martin's." Lin stated.
Mai and Yasu shrugged, "Neither did we until about a week ago when the professor lists were sent out." Yasu replied with a mischievous grin, "I was hoping to surprise Naru over here, figured we'd run into you eventually." He pointed out.
Madoka's own smile widened. "I see, I see." She agreed.
Rolling her eyes, Mai turned back to Naru. "You had more questions didn't you?"
Naru nodded, "Explain to me how those two," He gestured over at Ayako and Bou-san," Spoke English whilst we were on the case."
Said Monk and Priestess turned to Mai after it was explained to them what happened thanks to John's translations.
"Wait we were? I was sure we were speaking Japanese…" Bou-san muttered in confusion.
A second later there was a loud smack as he was hit on the head. "You stupid monk! Obviously Mai was translating us!" She grumbled.
Bou-san nearly whined but quickly decided against it when he was given a glare from his fiancé.
Blinking a little, Naru turned to Mai. "You were the reason they could speak English?" He asked, once more confused – speaking in English for his father's benefit.
The brunette looked at him sheepishly. "I was trying out another theory…" She trailed off.
Next her Yasu seemed to get excited. "Oh yeah! Wait-"He turned to Mai quickly. "You tested them at the same time? How come I didn't notice?" He appeared to be more concerned with his lack of observational skills then the fact that she'd used so much of her psychic abilities.
Naru however was cursing the fact that he hadn't realised it earlier – but more so because of his firsthand experience on how she must feel right now.
Coughing slightly, Martin gave her a curious look. "So how exactly did you give them the ability to understand and speak English?" He asked.
Before Mai could tell him however, Yasu jumped in. "It's an advanced level of Telepathy which stems off of her aura reading abilities. Basically, after a particularly rough case, Mai found that she could understand and speak what things in other languages said provided that she had contact with someone else who knew that language in the general vicinity. I came up with the theory that she could use it to translate Basic English to Japanese for them without them knowing it. Of course, it wasn't fool proof and there were probably moments when Mai had to change things but we can talk about that later." He explained, voice speaking almost impossibly fast.
After a polite translation from John, Ayako rolled her eyes. "This is great and all but if you don't mind, I think I've had enough of being a test subject. I need to learn English on my own now for business purposes and so does this goof."
Mai grinned at that, ignoring the loud shouts of Bou-san about her being rude and an old hag. "You won't really need to. Have you tried to read or speak English instead of Japanese yet?"
Ayako was confused but shook her head so that Mai was aware of this knowledge. "Basically you should be able to speak English due to the words and translations still being in your immediate brain. Speak it enough and you can become fluent."
Lin watched her carefully. "Are you saying that you are able to speak other languages after having this ability used on you?"
Shocked by the sudden voice opinions from the usually silent man it took her a moment to comprehend the question. "Ah, Uh. Well sort of. Some of them like Spanish, I sort of just forgot but I know Chinese, English, and French fluently because of Cases with foreigners. The rest of them I never really cared to practice…" She trailed off slightly, a little embarrassed at how much attention had been on her.
She didn't enjoy being the centre of attention all that much and preferred it when everyone else was being scrutinised.
"I see…" Naru muttered thoughtfully. Her explanations hadn't been the best but he'd been able to put the information together easily enough and he was sure that Lin and his father had been able to the same just as well.
Mai fidgeted again for a moment before looking over at Lin. "Do you wish to ask your question after Naru's gone through all of his? It's not going to be a pleasant topic." She asked.
He appeared to think about it for a moment before nodding finally. "It would be best to get the discussion done beforehand so that everyone is made aware. But ii think to delay the inevitable until after Naru has sated his need for answers would be for the best."
Arguing would surely have been futile by the tone of his voice, not that she wished to argue anyway. It was quite the logical decision.
Turning back to Naru, she gave him all of her attention, ignoring the curious looks she'd gotten once more. She could think about how irritated they were going to be after she survived all of these explanations and the lectures that are long time coming.
"How are you in college this year? If my calculations are correct – which they are - then you shouldn't have graduated yet."
That was an odd question to ask and for some reason it made the brunette swell with pride. "I graduate officially in around five days. Just another reason as to my reluctance to come to England so early on. The plans to arrive soon were talked about but I still need to complete my graduation. I skipped ahead in most of my classes after you left. I had a lot of free time so I worked hard and got as close as I could to completing school and began to manage that between running the shop. I started the shop up around six months ago which was around the time when Yasu struck a deal with my principle. He claimed that he could get me to a graduate level in school within six months. If he could do that than they were to let me graduate that year so that we could go to university together. That's pretty much the story."
It had been a lot of work to get to where she was not but so far it had all been worth it. There were of course a few details she had forgotten to mention but they were hardly important.
Slowly Naru absorbed the information and placed it to the back off his mind for later reference. It could become helpful later on.
"If I may Miss Taniyama. What exactly are the extent of your abilities, in full? Please don't leave any details out." Martin requested.
Mai nodded in understanding. "Well you've already heard about my dreams and astral projection. I've explained how that works. To my knowledge I don't possess any PK abilities however I can sense auras and as you've no doubt figured out, find people and sometimes object using these abilities. There's also my strong instincts due to my latent ESP. The whole 'seeing shiki' thing is hard to explain so I'll just leave it at my ability to see and communicate with them for now. I've not really had the chance to elaborate on it all too much since Naru and Lin left not too long after. I don't think I left anything out…" She trailed off thoughtfully.
Yasu thought for a moment before he nodded. "That pretty much covers everything. Does anyone have any more questions for Mai?" He asked curiously.
A loud cough from Lin had Mai huffing. "You want me to explain the whole 'Gene' fiasco right?" She sighed.
He nodded in agreement. "That would be helpful yet. I'll find out one way or another and so will they so you might as well explain it to them now." He pointed out.
Of course Mai could see the logic but it was a touchy subject and she hardly felt as though she should be intruding upon it. But since Lin had brought it up none too careful she was getting wide-eyes looks from Martin and Luella. Naru was glaring slightly. What did he think she'd done now?
"Um well there's no easy way to explain this but Gene is still here…"
There was a silence before Naru spoke. "What do you mean 'Gene is still here'. We laid him to rest and he should have passed on." His voice was cold and Mai flinched slightly but stood her ground.
"I've been wondering myself. Back at the Baker's you stated that the afterlife works in ways that we can't even begin to comprehend. What did you mean?" Lin's contribution had the spotlight back on Mai and she curse him for putting her and the Davis' through this.
Gulping Mai looked down. "I'm not quite sure how to explain this. Gene still lingers, more as a guide for me than anything. Although sometimes he's just around." She began.
Before she could continue Naru cut her off. "He needs to pass on. What if he becomes like the spirits we cleanse and exorcise. That idiot." He ranted angrily.
It was obvious how this was making him feel and Mai wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around him and comfort him. But knowing that wasn't an option she decided to do the next best thing. At least until she had a moment alone with him. There were so many things she wanted him to know but she couldn't. Not until 'that day' finally came. Until then it wasn't an option.
Clearing her throat she made Naru aware of them fact that he was ranting with everyone around – not that his attitude was something he cared about right now, least of all his reputation.
"Actually he can't." Naru looked like he was going to interrupt her again but Mai held her hand up.
"Let her speak Noll." Luella whispered. She needed to know what the brunette was talking about. Was her other baby safe or not?
With a deep breath Mai began to explain once more. "As I was saying Gene can't go rogue. While it's true he's still on the spiritual plane it's a lot more complex than that. Imagine a room with three doors and a window that opens on both sides. On one side the spirits enter and on the other side spirits leave. Normally there is a constant flow for every spirit. They enter the room and a door opens. One represents hell, one heaven and one re-incarnation. The spirits we exorcise are those who've attempted to pass into the one of the windows and have their fate decided but the doors have shut on them as they have unfinished business. They are then sent back into our plane of existence as spirits. When Gene tried to pass on I was there, guiding him towards what people refer to as a 'light' but is simply one side of the window. Normally the doors and windows close and leave only a single door or window for one to pass through. As I watched something abnormal happened. Instead of closing and leaving one open, all of the doors and windows closed, locking him inside. He can't leave. In other words Gene hasn't trapped himself, the spiritual plane has."
When Mai finished her explanation everyone was silent. It seemed that Ayako and Bou-san were finally picking up on the English as they concentrated and were just as shocked as everyone to hear so much information on the spiritual plane.
For some reason though, Masako looked horrified, quickly bringing her kimono up to her face to hide her expression. There were many things she'd learned as a medium and at the very top of her list was that everything in this world there is a price. For information such as this… just what price had Mai paid?
Luella had begun to cry at Mai explanation and the brunette was quickly becoming uncomfortable. "I'll leave you alone for the time being to wrap your head around things." She decided. The others took the hint and stood up.
Lin looked reluctant to leave but Mai knew that it wasn't there place to stay, no matter how close he was to the family. "Come on Lin. I'm sure you've got a long lecture all planned out for me." She muttered with a wry grin.
Sighing, he took the hint and stood up. "Since you appear so ego. I'm sure Noll will be more than happy to have his turn later on."
When it seemed like he would argue, Mai walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned down to whisper into his ear.
"I know it's not my place but your family needs you right now. You have a family to look after you. Let go for a change. They love you no matter how you are, take advantage of it. You aren't alone."
The words were soft but they hit the narcissist hard and he looked up at her with the most vulnerable eyes she'd ever seen him give her. "Later. Will you tell me more later?" He mumbled.
Giving a final nod Mai smiled at him. "We can talk about whatever you want later. Go to your family."
With that, she left the room with Lin in tow. Despite her teasing tone from earlier he appeared to be fully ready to give her the exact lecture he'd thought up.
'Well what was I expecting? This is Lin after all.'
Shellsan: And so that's it!
Mai: Wha-!? You just gave the readers more questions!
Naru: Told you it sucked
Shellsan: I'm sorry! I didn't intend for things to go like that but it just kind of derailed and decided to go in that direction… *sighs* Please read and review anyways?