((Sorry meant to get this up earlier today, but The Dream Thieves came out today-SO GOOD! and it required reading immediately. So i just got this back from my beta and I hope it's up to snuff. The last scene was really hard for me to write and I'm sure it'll be coming up throughout the story obviously. But now we can push forward with the genuine ghost hunt stuff that's a bit truer to character-at least for a bit. I still don't own this stuff sadly.))

Oliver Davis was grimacing as he set the second to last monitor down on the table in the make shift HQ. Lin could get the last one, he wanted to begin the interview with the family that had assembled in the other room. He looked over the dining room for a moment and considered the items on the table before palming a small recorder, and picking up his black notebook and bed to record the client interview so he could find out what was going on. Madoka had been all doom and gloom as always but for once Oliver didn't feel she was over exaggerating.

With that he strode out of the room and into the next. He stopped and sighed lightly when he saw the little kids sitting on their parent's laps. he hated when little kids were hurt. It was times like this he really needed his mother or Ma..no he couldn't think about that. While they were the ones he had always depended on to help comfort the children who'd been hurt by this dark world he could try to do something.

Four sets of weary eyes looked at him. They were Americans and truth be told Oliver had little but contempt for American's He couldn't really grasp that he could be an American as he'd been in an orphanage there and he simply chose to believe that is birth mother traveled there after he was born. Most things American grated his nerves. Their torture of the English language sat at the top of their sins in his eyes and wrapped up somewhere after their embarrassing grasp on their history. The list went on and he had to ignore it for now. While he wasn't known for his manners he knew the rules of polite society. He tried to observe what he could of their behavior. Nonverbal clues could be very important in a case like this.

A woman in her mid twenties sat nervously. She was wringing her hands into her lap and biting her lip in an attempt to hold back tears. She had her arms wrapped around a young child. A boy possibly? A little girl? It was impossible to tell. The child wore a yellow outfit and only appeared to have one tooth in it's mouth, there was a shock of dark hair on the very top of the baby's head but it's age and sex alluded him. It babbled and chewed on it's fingers and fussed quietly. A little girl who wore dark ringlet curls down to her waste and a pretty blue paisley jumper. She had on little black mary janes that reminded him of the latest fashion for girls in England. She had tights on that had little ponies on them and larger olive colored eyes. Her skin was drawn tight around her eyes and she looked to be in extreme distress internally. It was a feeling that Oliver knew well and the look in her eyes haunted him on a visceral level. Rounding out the small family was a taller man who wore what his mother could call a spare tire and his father;when out of ear shot, would call a bear belly. Something about his oily skin, bald head and beady eyes bothered him deeply. He seemed almost combative from the moment they arrived and was insistent that no one talk to anyone from his team unless HE was present. That bothered Oliver most of all. A man who's family was being treated so horribly would normally be happy to have a world renowned expert coming to his home to help put an end to their torment. He seemed to think it was no one's business. Fortunately he worked for his father in law's company and the older man paid is salary and owned the home that they lived in, so what HE said went. As much as he'd wanted to hunt Mai down today, once he'd stopped fuming and heard Madoka's description of the family's problems with poltergeist and spirits trying to kill the older child and terrorizing the family he really couldn't turn them down. He to help if for no other reason than Mai's soft heart would never forgive him if he left a child to suffer and he could stop it.

He looked around at the faces and then the walls. There were three sets of deep marks in the walls that appeared to have been caused by claws. A teddy bear had been ripped in several pieces and it's stuffing laid strewn on the floor. The room smelled of fire and water and there was a busted coffee table sitting uselessly in front of the loveseat. He at down in an overstuffed chair that had seen better days.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Hines, I'm Dr. Oliver Davis, from The British Society of Paranormal Research, I'm here to help so why don't we start at the beginning while we wait for Father Brown and my associate Mr Kojou set ups our equipment." He put the tape recorder on the end table to his right and pushed the on button, then he opened his notebook and un-capped his fountain pen. "Why don't we start at the beginning."

Lin had to admit the past few weeks had left him feeling unsettled. He cared deeply for Oliver as an older brother would for a younger. The young man had started a giant pain in his ass. He was spoiled and over indulged albeit exceptionally strong child. He had been rude and his sense of self entitlement and worth bothered Lin greatly along with Oliver's all too adult smirks.

He recalled one of their earliest sessions. It was in the den of his Oliver's parent's town home in London. Luella Davis could not abide the thought of her sons being experimented upon in the labs at BSPR and did all she could to shelter her young boys. Eugene appreciated the coddling more than Oliver who smirked at Lin with his eyes cold and made the couch he had been sitting on float when he'd challenged the young man to show him what he could do. When he had slammed it back to the floor the legs broke off and the frame broke. Oliver collapsed and lapsed into a coma for two days. Eugene had been hysterical at him for it and Luella needed to be sedated. A few days later he'd met with Martin Davis in his office at BSPR and waited to be fired for pushing his young charge too far. Martin hadn't fired him though. He still remembered the look in the older man's eyes.

"So. Can you help them?"

He pursed his lips and considered this for a moment. He could work with Eugene. While both boys appeared to have Japanese ancestry; and he hated them for that alone, he would be able to overlook that with Eugene Davis for the sum his parents would pay him and the kind lilt in the boys voice. Lin knew though that what Marin Davis meant was 'Can you deal with Oliver?'. He was obviously the Alpha of the two and was rude, smug, lacked discipline and had the potential to be wildly dangerous. He also knew that something dark lived in that young man as well as something very bright. He had a sight for those things and even without the money he'd have worked with him to keep the dark from eating the light. He'd had a vision once when he was in the spirit realm some years before that showed him the very same things he saw in Oliver's eyes. He heard his grandfather telling him that this was his duty to keep the dark from destroying the light. His grandfather had been a very holy man. A very powerful and scary man and Lin respected him above all others.

"I'll start as soon as he's released from the hospital, but it's going to have to be my rules. I'll help him and I'll work with Eugene but you have to allow me to teach him discipline. I know you love your sons, but with him a lack of discipline could kill you all. I'm going to have to be a tough task master but I'll be fair. You hire me and this isn't a job, this is a binding agreement. I'll take the orders I agree with and will remain true to the goal."

"And what is your goal Mr. Kojou."

"To keep him from destroying himself and the world around him."

Martin Davis looked at him. He really looked at him and Lin knew that he was having his measure as a man taken. He didn't flinch. Whatever it was that Dr. Martin Davis saw he seemed to like because all he said next was. "How long?"

"Till he doesn't need me anymore."

Martin Davis merely accepted that without any further discussion. Lin had never regretted his choice although he did at times feel uncomfortable with his circumstances. He'd been there in the hours after Noll had his vision of Gene dying and he felt the waves of pain coming from the stoic young man who for all outward appearances seemed hardly ruffled. He'd been there when every window had been blown out during the days after Gene's funeral and felt the pain that followed when Noll had been rushed to the hospital with a raging fever the doctor's fought for days to control. But he'd also been there when Noll would secretly watch Mai make tea and spied the young man watching her hands and hips move. He'd felt the feelings when he saved her from the well, and the sewer. He felt the spike of pain and worry in the mansion and knew exactly what it was that Oliver, Noll, Naru saw in the fiery girl. He was no empath but he was changed from his visits beyond and felt things that normal people didn't.

Lin knew that for the first time in his life his young change had not only felt frustration, fear, and worry but he'd felt lust like a normal teenage boy and it's parent Love. It was the latter of those feelings that Lin hoped would help now. The dark had been trying to eat the light inside of Noll for three years now and the light was losing it's strength to fight back.

That's why he did what he did next. While the younger Dr. Davis was busy with his interview he took out his laptop and opened his messenger. He chose his contact and typed out.

Is it too late?

He was rewarded with a response not long after.

It's complicated. We need to meet, There is a lot we didn't know until just now. Are you sure you want to know the truth?

'No, but I need to.' With that Lin made his choice and he and his accomplice arranged a time to meet and discuss privately.

Mai had opened her door to Ayako and Takigawa several hours ago and not too long after they showed up at her door so did Masako and Yasu.
She invited them all into her small apartment and led them into her small sitting room. Everyone had tight smiles and didn't say anything until Mai brought a bottle of warm Sake out and set it on the table with five small cups. She took the top cup out and looked at the small, white porcelain in her hand winking back at the small Hello Kitty on it. She opened the sake and poured herself an entire cup. She paused to grimace and closed her eyes swallowing the entire cupful before she looked at her friends, cup still in her hand.

"So. The great Dr. Davis has come back to Japan. What does he want now?" No one could quite look her in the eye, even Yasu who'd never been one to shy away in the least bit from any sort of controversy. Takigawa looked at Ayako and she put her hand over his, looking him briefly in the eye and the nodding. The monk grabbed two more cups and filled one for himself and his fiancé. They both took deep swallows of the burning liquid. Yasu grabbed his own and offered the last to Masako wordlessly who shook her head no. It was Takigawa who finally screwed up the courage to speak.

"You. Or so he says." Mai snorted and refilled her cup only to drain it again a moment later. She looked at his face searching for the lie and then to Ayako. She skipped Yasu's face since he lied too easily and she wouldn't be able to tell drunk and instead looked at Masako who'd never been able to lie period. When Masako looked back at her and didn't contradict Bou-san she finally spoke. "Why he didn't take enough before? He wants the scraps he left?"

"Mai. I think you need to tell us what happened that night. We can't help you if we don't know. We love you. We're your family. Please Mai." This from Ayako. Mai took another drink and then mostly because it was Ayako who sat there with tears in her eyes pleading to know her deepest shames did she dare speak.

"I think you need more sake Ayako." She topped off the red haired woman's cup and then sank back in her chair miserably. And she told.

Mai told them the truth about her dreams and her dream guide. She told about Gene's death and body being found. The truth of Naru's identity and reason for being in Japan. She told about her confession and how he treated her and walked away leaving her there. She told them about the rain and the cold. The dark and the loneliness. Then when she had drank a few more cups and they all still sat silently while she told about her shame Takigawa had been so enraged he's walked in the bathroom and punched a hole in the wall and Ayako and Masako held her while she sobbed the last of it. How she'd stumbled into the train station bathroom and scrubbed her legs and self raw before riding home in near catatonia. . The saddest part Mai felt was the end of it, that she no longer had psychic dreams and no longer talked to "Gene". She was no loner special at all she told them. Yasu sat in disbelief and was left without words for the first time in his life.

When she was done, everyone, including Masako drank more sake and mumbled things noncommittally until Mai passed out. Takigawa carried her gently to her bed and Ayako tucked her in pushing the hair from her face and kissed her gently on the forehead. Yasu left a cup of cold water and two small pills for headaches on her nightstand. In the end it was Masako who stayed and watched over Mai. The other three let themselves out quietly knowing the small medium would watch over Mai and let them know anything that happened. Yasu went down the stairs while the monk and priestess when up. It wasn't until they sank down in their own couch miserably that they could manage to talk about the young woman's confession.

Ayako iced his hand and wrapped it gently and he looked at her through the pain, "Now what do we do?"

"We get her help. I'm going to see if someone at the hospital can recommend a counselor for people who've been sexually assaulted. Find her a support group."

"Did you think it was anything like this?"

"No..I didn't. I don't know. I thought maybe they slept together and the idiot ran off because he's an emotionally repressed mess. That he couldn't deal with his feelings and Mai being Mai just couldn't take loosing any one else. Gods I..I feel so horrible. I should have found out or known. I've let her down so much."

Sometime later. "It certainly explains a lot."

"Yes."

"So..What do we do about it?"

"I don't know Houshou. I really just don't know." She leaned against him and drew her legs up to her chest. He put his uninjured hand around her and kissed her temple while pulling her close.

"Is it good for her to be around him, do you think it would help?". His fiancé shrugged. They sat for a few minutes letting the sunset stream into their window and bathe them in the orange light. "I could fucken rip his head off. That arrogant prick. Leaving a young girl like Mai alone, in the dark in that area! He knows that she's a magnet for trouble! Who the fuck does he think he is! First he uses her for a connection to his brother and HIDES it from all of us, who he's also using, then he dismisses her and to top off he just shows up and demands that we do what he wants. Self important narcissist. Who does he think he is! I hope Mai punches his in the throat!" The monk strangled off a cry as his fiancé cried quietly beside him.

"Monk, we have to let all that go. Mai's going to be ok now that we can get her the help she needs. She's a grown woman now. I love her too but we can't make these choices for her. If she wants to deal with him or not we have to support her with our love. We have to give her good times. We can't blame him for everything. Yes, he shouldn't have left her but he didn't..violate her. We have to assume that he doesn't even know it's happened, just like we didn't. And we can't tell him. It's not our place to tell him about the her..attack." Ayako couldn't bring herself to say rape. "IF she ever wants him to know it's only her place to tell him, not ours." Ayako took a deep breath. She'd been reeling since Mai had held on to her and sobbed out the truth of it. She couldn't imagine losing your innocence in such a violent, painful way and she hurt so much for the young woman she thought of as a sister. "We give her good things to focus on, ok? We don't ignore what happened to her but we can't let her think it's all we see. She'll lose all the ground she's gained back in the past few years. We don't look at her as a victim but as a survivor."

Takigawa looked at the woman in his arms for a few moments and touched her face gently and nodded before leaning back and closing his eyes.

"I wish I could kill the fuckers."

"I'm working on ways to curse them at this very moment."

"Is that possible?" The monk asked with an eyebrow raised. Just then his phone beeped with a message. Looking at it he showed it to his fiancé before typing back and getting her approval on the message before he sent it. It was Ayako who spoke next.

"That would be the person to ask. If anyone could do it, he could."

"Hmm.." was all Takigawa said as he sat back and closed his eyes blocking out everything but the warm woman next to him.