"I'm sorry professor, seems like I am not having a good day." Mai apologized while martin escorted her through the hall.
"It's ok Taniyama." Mai grimaced at the use of her name, he only used her last name when he was not happy. Happy he used her first. "Females are known to have fluctuating abilities, depending on the time of the month and other factors. We can try again. You should keep records on when your abilities fluctuate. It would be beneficial to know when you are at full strength on a case."
"Yes, sir." Mai tried to keep the disappointment from her voice, "was there anything you would like me to take to Lin-san? I think I should record today and rest."
"Sure if you wait just a moment." Martin stepped into his office and picked up a stack of files. "I need Lin-san to review these case files and see if anything was overlooked." He handed her a stack, "This second is possible cases we have turned away, just have him review them and see if there is anything we should look into." He set the second stack crossways of the first.
Mai smiled brightly, busy work for Lin but it was good practice for her English and learning to be an investigator. "I will."
She bowed slightly then caught herself. Not necessary in England, she reminded herself. She turned and headed to the door as she heard Martin settle into his chair behind the desk. She adjusted her pile into one arm while reaching for the door. A file slipped from the rest, she grabbed for it losing the others. While controlling what was left in her arms a feeling of dread pricked her fingers before darkness enveloped her.
Darkness gave way to a blue outlined world. From her feet she saw stones traces in silhouette. Looking up boulders lined her right side. The world felt wrong, a darkness of shadows that didn't belong obscured her view and clouded her senses.
Mai cleared her thoughts and examined herself. She reached out and held a thin line. This confirmed her fear, she was astral projecting not dreaming. With that knowledge tucked away she walked forward. In either form her body was safe, as long as she did not pull anything back with her. astral projecting she could transport objects and much of her fear was taking with her something dangerous and not realizing it. So far she was lucky.
The boulders grew larger and formed into a solid wall. Her eyes were pulled to look up watch what towered over her. A forboding sense of danger kept her instincts on high alert. Another few paces and she felt herself shaking in response to the lurking danger. She wanted to look around at her surroundings but her eyes were glued to the boulder ridge. Such a strange creation to be so tall with so many large boulders. Atop of the next one she saw a figure. A dark silhouette against a foggy background. Staying still her eyes attempted to decipher what she saw. The figure was wrong. A thin line ran straightup. The figure's feet hung above the ground. something dripped from a malformed toe. A step forward brought the form into shape. the foot was lengthened beyond usual Mai tipped her head to the side to get a better view.
She sighed realizing the body wasn't human, only a mouse. The stake skewered it from the belly to behind his neck. Mai stood frozen as the dead red eyes stared into hers, the blood dripping into a pool on the ground before her.
Lights flickered behind her. Highlighting up the dead mouse and several next to it. The movement pulled her from its warning she pulled back turning from it. She moved away from the lights. Two beams passed by her and illuminated above the dead mouse warning. The lights continued and a large tire followed and loomed higher a bumper hit the mouse knocking it to the ground as the tires ground to a halt. Blue willow wisps floated from the mouse corpse into the engine. The door opened and a boot stepped out.
Mai felt a scream rip from her throat as she panicked. She reached for her body, she reached for anything tangible. Strong arms wrapped around her and pressed her into a soft ground.
"Mai,"
Mai latched onto the familiar voice and grasped for a tangible touch. "Lin?" she called out as her hands closed onto fabric she pulled it close and opened her eyes slowly. "Lin?" she looked up. An arm wrapped around her shoulders bringing her close into his protection. "It was horrible."
He held her still for a few minutes until her sobs receded. A clearing of the throat let her know someone else was there. She took a couple deep breaths taking in a calming scent and released her hold.
"Taniyama-san are you ok?" he spoke in clear English.
Mai nodded, and sat up straighter. She felt weight moving away from her as she unwrapped herself from a familiar blanket. Unfamiliar couch and pale blue walls greeted her eyes. Looking around she noticed a desk, behind it sat another man. Professor Martin Davis.
'That's right, he was there when I collapsed.' She thought.
"Mai, dear." A female voice called beside her. Turning her head she met with Luella's eyes. "Are you ok?"
Mai nodded. She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them. "I had a dream," she spoke barely more than a whisper.
"Taniyama-san." A familiar baritone called to her. Looking up again she saw Lin with a cup of tea. She reached up accepting it gratefully. She took a sip then noticed Lin had sat across from her with a laptop ready. She took another sip before beginning.
"I said a dream, but I was astral projecting." She stated in English to clarify. "Below my feet were pebbles while to the left were boulders. The formed into a fence or barrier. Darkness, heavy darkness, more a feeling than a lack of light. I knew something was wrong. I walked forward and it towered above me. A stake. Stuck threw a body. Another step, the body was not human, just a mouse." She looked into the calming tea for a second before taking another sip. A deep breath then she continued, "Blood dripped from the mouse. Skewered from the belly to just behind the neck. It hung limp in warning. A beam of light came from the side and lit the silhouette of several others." She shook her head. "Two beams of light. A noise from behind I turned and saw a car approach, the bumper hit one steak knocking it to the ground. As it rolled a blue fox fire left the mice and disappeared into the car while a foot stepped out."
Mai looked up to catch Lin's eyes then Martins before she became silent staring into her tea. She breathed deeply and closed her eyes. Relaxing her body she reminded herself. "I wasn't there, it was a warning, it was only a mouse.' The memory of the mouse's dead eyes staring up at her tensed her body and she jolted her eyes open.
"Mai," Martin's voice drew to look at him. "Can you answer a few questions for us?" Mai nodded, she took one last sip of tea and set the cup aside. "Your point of view, you said that there was boulders to the side then you said the staked mice were above you. How did that happen?"
"I am not sure." she shook her head. "Normally my point of view is my size sometimes I take the view of a person, or spirit that was there. I seemed to be mouse sized or smaller although I do not understand why or how." Martin nodded.
"Dear you can stop anytime that you would like." Luella placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. Mai gave her a smile.
"I am fine Mrs Davis." She looked back toward martin, "I think it was a warning or something…" she shrugged grasping for the right way to explain.
"You said you felt darkness, not lack of light, what do you mean."
Mai nodded. "Darkness, heavy darkness…" she grasped for a way to explain it then looked to Lin and spoke in Japanese. "Hara-san talked about hallowed ground, sacred ground of the native Americans. She felt similar in the cave the Ebisu." Lin nodded his understanding. Fingers continuing to type every word she said. "This is similar feeling. The cave was not light but free of darkness. This place…" she shivered. "was the opposite."
Lin nodded understanding and looked toward an eager Martin and a slightly confused Luella. "Hara, Masako a medium she worked and trained with in Japan told her about sacred native American burial grounds. She said they had a similar feel as the caves in a case that housed a god." Martin nodded remembering the case.
"The Ebisu- or god in the driftwood." Luella asked.
Lin nodded. "That was not a light feeling, but still a place without darkness. Holy." Mai nodded following his explanation. "This was the opposite. Dark, probably dangerous, malicious and possibly evil."
"Have you felt this way before?"
Mai shook her head then thought back and shivered. "Not at the time but…." She hesitated. She hadn't told Lin or anyone else. "Nightmares following the Urado case. I was too worried about Masako at the time but in the nightmares, reliving it that room with Urado." She shivered at the thought. She saw Lin's lips flatten into a thin line. He was upset they didn't know about the nightmares.
Martin nodded while Luella grasped Mai into a hug. "You should come over and sleep at our house tonight." She suggested. "If you have a nightmare I could be there for you."
"Back then I did not realize what having abilities meant, the consequences and how to control them. Now I can release their hold better." Mai gave Luella a thankful smile. "I would rather be in a familiar place tonight." Her own apartment was more familiar then the Davis's although it was still much too new to be comforting.
"As you wish dear."
"You said a beam of light, then corrected it to two beams." Mai nodded. "Head lights?" Again Mai nodded. "You then spoke about a bumper, what do you know about the car?"
Mai closed her eyes, recalling the memory. "High bumper, van, dark, blue or green, real dark color. Chrome bumper." She motioned with her hands grasping for a word. One hand made a straight line across in a flat hand the other hand a step above it made a shorter line then moved equal distance above it and made another short line. "Like…" she repeated the long line again. "Steps.." she fumbled for a word. "a long step on the outside of the van."
"Running boards." Lin stated. "Our van in Japan didn't have any but they are not uncommon." Mai looked at him skeptically. A few taps on his computer and he turned it toward her on the front if showed the side of a van with a long step on the outside. Mai nodded.
"The van was bigger, but like that."
"Can you concentrate on the bumper? A license plate?"
Mai closed her eyes and recalled following the beams of light back to their source she saw a white plate on the front as it slowly moved toward her it became more distinct. "7L0" she said. Looking up at the professor she nodded. "At least that much."
She closed her eyes as the mouse's dead eyes glared at her. She shook her head opening them. "That is all I can remember." She reached for the tea cup before remembering it was empty. "That is all I know about it." she stated firmly.
"Fine we will look into it." Martin stated firmly. "Just some general questions on your abilities if you can manage Mai." His smiling eyes looked hopefully at her. She trained her eyes to the ground before nodding. "You stated first it was a dream, then as astral projection. How do you know what it was?"
"A dream, is distinct, a replay of a memory from a single viewpoint. I either observe or take a certain role in it." she twisted her fingers in her lap. "Astral projecting is less clear. The View of inanimated objects is outlined in blue. I am in control although when I do not do it on purpose I feel a pull to certain things or directions. I also can feel a lifeline, a line that connects back to my body."
Martin nodded accepting her explanation. "So what you saw was happening while you were there?"
Mai nodded.
"Reports show pre and post cognitive abilities. You said this was a warning, could it be precognitive?"
Mai shook her head. "I do not understand everything about astral projection, but I have always reacted in real time during it." She looked to Lin and asked in Japanese. "I did not believe it was possible to Project into different times."
"I have never heard of it either." He responded also in Japanese. Carefully keeping his eyes trained on Mai. She looked toward Martin and noticed Lin's head nodded almost imperceptibly. Lin thought Martin was testing her.
She shrugged tilting her head to the side while looking at Martin. "Any other questions?" she asked brightly then ruined it with a yawn.
"What caused this reaction?"
Mai tilted her head and as her brows furrowed. "I don't understand."
"I handed you two piles of folders. You had no problem taking them, and then collapsed before you got to the door, what triggered your collapse?"
"I normally only have visions or" she fished again for a word then chose to take Martin's. "Reactions, while on cases. Sometimes it is after meeting the client, sometimes on the way to the location, sometimes at the locations." She shrugged. "Naru calls it instinctual." Another yawn escaped past the hand she covered her mouth with.
"Thank you Mai," Luella interrupted before Martin could speak again. "If you could remember anything else please let us know." She turned a glare on her husband who sat back in his desk giving in with a satisfied look on his face.
Martin watched as Luella dismissed Mai and Lin. He was fuming. Reports from Japan had shown remarkable potential. After the 'Urado' Case they had delineated her probable possible abilities. There were also reports of Lin training her further to control these abilities. Lin had kept them brief and also notated common reactions to increased psychic abilities. Yet Mai had shown no detectable abilities. His tests had come back negative and for all he tried to distance the girl from Lin she seemed unusually glued to the man. Once he figured out what had caused the insubordination accusations, what Lin was hiding from SPR he had planned to deal with it swiftly, send Lin back to protect Oliver and keep a potentially remarkable medium here in England but now he reconsidered.
Due to her previous work and abilities he had skipped the rudimentary tests. Relying on Noll's previous 1000 light test, case reports and observations. She had a significant variation so he had tried to define what her strengths were.
Inanimate objects electrical, mind reading, human or animal latency and each one came up negative. Pschometry, zip. He even tried PKMT, PKST and PKLT, who was to say she didn't cause the effects to happen and that is how she knew about it.
Mai as far as he could see was mundane. No psychic abilities.
He was sure of it. He was about to call his adopted son and give him an earful when... she collapsed. She had a psychic vision about something...
He growled, stabbing the speaker button on the phone it slid off the side of his desk. Annoyed with one arm he cleared the rest of his desk off, papers flying away until they landed with a dull thud.
"Martin," the soft voice came from the door. He didn't look up knowing who it was. Luella closed the door behind her. With a grunt he picked up the pile and proceeded to redeposit it onto his desk.
"You know," Luella walked to the desk taking a few pages from the floor Martin had missed. "Mai is a difficult psychic to figure out. I can see why Noll and Lin find this girl intriguing." She continued. "She is an atypical psychic, no wonder it took Noll four cases before testing her." she mused. Martin picked the phone up and adjusted it on his desk. "Her initial test would have looked like a failure also to a nonresearcher. After 1,000 blinking lights she didn't get a single one right." She sorted through the papers, knowing which graph went with which numbers and reports. She quickly organized the files back into some semblance of organization.
Martin paused arranging his desk. "None?"
"None." Luella repeated. "Her coworkers thought she had failed, but Noll knows to look into the data, not just the results." Aggravated yet slightly cooled Martin opened the Mai's file again. Luella nodded while she tapped the bottom of a pile of papers on his desk lining them into a perfect pile. "And then once she knew how the test worked, she has gotten exactly 25% right, each time she has been tested since, exactly 25%."
Martin pulled the first pile from the file. "Exactly 25%," he murmured reviewing the file, she had been tested 6 times since, each one showed 25% an anomaly, there should usually be a bit of variation by 5-10%. "She never touched the rocker, she never slept, although the rocker was the correct item. She couldn't sleep although she most likely would have dreamt the answer." He set the paper aside and looked into the next file. "She chose only the items that were not connected to anything. You're right, her avoidance was too perfect." Martin murmured looking through the other piles.
Luella quietly closed the door as she slipped out of the office. Sometimes her husband was a little thick skulled. She remembered that first night meeting Mai. She had come in the house in jeans with her hair tied back. A short nap and her hair loosed just below her shoulders but in her hair there were flowers. That night she checked the garden. Two bluebells had been pinched. How she had found their stems in the large garden, she wondered but there they were. Only one person went into the garden that day. She had tended to those bluebells herself. This girl was special.