Finding You:
Chapter 6:
Mai tried to slow her heartbeat. Recognising the base from the video as being the same as the one on her dream had given her a fright. She managed to calm down enough to continue to watch the video to deflect Naru's attention. She barely paid any attention to the exorcism and didn't even flinch when her younger self fell flat on her face in the middle of chanting the Nine Cuts as she was still reeling from the shock.
It was either a coincidence that the base in her dream was the same or it had been a memory of the case. If the latter option was correct that meant she had dated Naru.
She shook her head, that was obviously not true. The narcissist had rejected her and told her that she was in love with his twin, not him and he constantly insulted her, making it hard to believe that he would have gone out with an idiot like her.
No, her dream was just a coincidence.
When she exited the van with the file in her hand, another photo fluttered to the ground. The brunette picked it up, checking it for damage and saw that it was another photo of her and Naru in close proximity to each other. Was it another coincidence?
She tucked the photo in her pocket to evaluate later. It was time to set up the base. Naturally she had missed the face that Naru had been watching her carefully for the past five minutes since he had placed the photo in the file.
Once she was alone in her and John's bedroom- there only five of them on the case and only two of them had good tactical abilities so she was sharing with John- she pulled out the photo album from her bag and the photo from her pocket. Mai placed it in an empty gap in a set of photos taken at an Okonomiyaki restaurant. In this photo she was leaning into Naru and posing with two fingers behind his head to resemble bunny ears. As per the usual, the scientist did not look happy.
They had definitely not dated judging from that, Mai decided in satisfaction. It was all just a coincidence. She closed the album and went off to find something to do before Naru could accused her of slacking off.
His first words to her when she crossed the threshold of the base were, rather unsurprisingly,
"Mai, tea."
She rolled her eyes and toddled off to the kitchen and hoped there would be a brand of tea and flavour that Naru would drink, he had been quite fussy in the memories she had of him. The female client was in the kitchen when she entered, rolling dough to make Gyoza.
"Taniyama-san, was it? Do you need anything?" she asked.
"The boss wants tea," Mai explained. "Sumeragi-san, you don't have to make it, he's very particular about it."
"The tea is in this cupboard," the client showed her. "Also, please call me Hokuto-san, I'm still not used to my married name."
Mai boiled the kettle and selected a suitable teacup for Naru. As she waited for the water to boil she conversed with the client.
"How long have you and your husband been married for?" she enquired.
"Nearly two months, it was going to be in the summer, but it had to be moved forward for a reason," Hokuto answered with a smile. "I'm pregnant."
"Really?" Mai gaped, surprised as Hokuto looked to be the same age as her.
Hokuto gave her an amused look. "Yes. I am twenty four after all and I have been with him for seven years. Haven't you ever had a boyfriend? I thought your boss was giving you intent looks earlier when I saw him that either mean he hates you or loves you?"
Mai blinked. Was everything she saw and everyone she talked to going to hint that she had been involved with Naru romantically? He had rejected her. Admittedly he had become kinder, but that did not mean that he had developed romantic feelings towards her.
"No, that's how he usually looks," she laughed.
Her new friend looked doubtful "Well, you know him much better than I do... The water has boiled by the way."
Mindful of Naru complaining about tepid tea, Mai hastened to make the tea and carried back to the base. She placed it on the table next to him.
"Thank you," he said and looked up momentarily.
The amnesiac stared at him, recalling Hokuto's words. To her, Naru didn't look at her like he hated or loved her. She chalked it up to Hokuto not knowing Naru at all, neglecting to consider that Naru had been staring at her at times she hadn't been aware of it.
She sat down in a chair in the corner next to where Lin was typing at top speed and fished out her phone to text Ayako who had asked her to give her regular updates on how case was going.
"Mai, if you have nothing better to do than play on your phone, go and help John take photos of the furniture."
Mai placed her phone back in her pocket and walked off to find that Australian priest who she suspected may not be adverse to giving her some answers or at least some hints. She found him in the living room, photographing a vase.
"How is your head, Mai-san?" he asked kindly and joined her on the sofa where she had sat down.
"I have a check up at the hospital this weekend and some therapy is going to be arranged to help me recover my memory."
"That will be good for you," John answered and said the line that Mai had been hoping for. "If there is anything I can do, please let me know."
She raised her eyebrows. "John, what happened two years ago? It seems that something happened two years ago that no one will tell me about. I need an answer."
The priest ruffled his hair nervously. "Two years ago, I returned to Australia for several months and when I came back to Japan you were no longer working for SPR. The same goes for Takigawa-san and Matsuzaki-san, we were stuck on a case a week after my return and I suggested calling them in, but Shibuya-san informed me that they no longer worked for him."
Mai frowned. Something had certainly happened two years ago. She needed to go through all the case files which wasn't a pleasurable prospect as there was going to be a lot of videos to watch. A timeframe was needed to narrow it down.
"When did you go to Australia and come back?"
"I left Japan at the start of June and returned at the end of August," John looked curious. "Why?"
Mai blinked innocently. "No reason. Do you have any idea why I stopped working for SPR?"
John shook his head. "No. I'm sorry for not being there. However... the atmosphere around the office was strange after you went and Shibuya-san was always in a terrible mood. It was like that for a couple of months."
The figure who had been standing unnoticed in the doorway for several minutes finally spoke.
"Weren't you two supposed to be taking photos?"
Mai breathed a sigh of relief at the familiar voice. It was only Lin, another prospective candidate and considering his closeness to Naru, he had to know the most. Also she had noted that Lin called her "Mai-san" instead of "Taniyama-san" like she remembered meaning that they had become friendlier during the past six years.
She gestured for him to sit down next to her and much to her surprise he did. She opened her mouth to speak, but he jumped in before her.
"Mai-san, I know what you are going to ask me. Please be aware that people who know what happened are not telling you for a reason," he told her, looking more serious and focused than usual.
"Is it because they are afraid it will upset me?"
Lin nodded. "What happened to you was emotionally scarring for everyone involved, but it hurt you the most. Your amnesia is protecting you from recalling this event and hurting yourself. I will not tell you what happened though."
Mai smiled ruefully. The omnouji had a point. Deep down she knew that everyone like Ayako, Bou-san and Masako were keeping it from her because they cared for her and her amnesia wasn't blocking her last six years of memories arbitrarily. Perhaps she shouldn't pursue the truth because it would hurt her again. She was jerked out of her internal dilemma by Lin speaking again.
"But I will give you a hint. It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to follow it," his voice dropped to a whisper. "Check your hospital records."
Mai's eyes widened. Did that mean she had been injured on a case badly enough to warrant Naru firing her? She was so intent on trying to work out what it could mean that she didn't notice a shadow fall over her.
"Whatever happened to taking photos and interviewing the clients?" a cold voice broke the silence.
In unison, all three investigators jumped at the suddenness of Naru's appearance and were quick to stand up and return to what they were supposed to be doing. Lin left the room in search of the clients and Mai grabbed the camera, leaving John to receive Naru's glare.
The former narcissist was in a strange mood all evening and kept glaring at Lin, leaving Mai to wonder if he had overheard them talking and wasn't happy because he didn't want her to know what happened. Perhaps he was not the person putting the photos in the files. Her mind instantly rejected that, today the photo had definitely not been there when she had looked through and there was no one else apart from her and Naru and Lin who was driving in the van so it must have been him.
Mai left the base for bed earlier than usual due to the fact that no one was talking and Naru's glare had turned on her whenever she made a noise. What Mai should have done was to listen at the door after she had left the room as everyone started speaking once she had gone.
"Noll, I did not tell her anything. Brown-san did not either," Lin insisted.
"I couldn't have told her anything anyway," John said. "I don't know what happened."
Naru looked mollified with John and suspicious when he glanced at his former bodyguard.
"Knowing you Lin, you gave her a hint of some sort."
The omnouji twitched, confirming Naru's suspicions.
"It should be fine. I cannot see Takigawa-san, Hara-san or Matsuzaki-san giving her a hint so she won't be able to build up the complete picture."
Yasuhara who had spent most of the day at the library researching and had only just arrived back in time for dinner, had missed everything and was trying to work out what had happened. However he had worked out enough to decide the promising not to say anything to Mai either would not get him a pay cut and allow him to keep his job.
"I haven't told her anything and I will not in the future either," he spoke up.
Whilst this conversation was occurring Mai was lying in her futon twiddling her thumbs. She resolved to ask to see her records when she went to the hospital for her check up and to check the SPR files for cases that occurred two years ago. She was aware that if she was not permitted to see her records and if Naru had hidden the case file, it was unlikely that she was going to get any answers. There was one avenue of investigation left that was not reliant on anyone else. She needed to have a dream that would answer all of her questions.
"What happened two years ago?" she asked out loud and kept the question in her mind as she drifted off to sleep, evened out her breathing and kept her body relaxed, aiming to astral project.
Mai opened her eyes and found herself in her apartment in the kitchen. She peered at the calendar on the fridge and observed that the date was the 25th of July, two years ago. She had done it, or at least projected into the right time frame.
A rustling sound made itself apparent and she peered through the open door to her bedroom to see her younger self throwing clothes from the wardrobe onto a pile on the floor. Mai took a closer look to see that they were all men's clothes, mostly black and dark blue shirts and was that a set of pale blue pyjamas?
"Should I burn them?" her 21 year old counterpart questioned aloud. "Or send them back to him? Which would be worse?"
The real Mai's eyes widened. She was now certain that she was witnessing the aftermath of a break up. But with who? So far she had more questions than answers. Something on past Mai's hand's flashed in the sunlight, allowing Mai to catch sight of a ring on her wedding ring finger.
She had been engaged?