Finding You:

Chapter 7:

Mai was jolted out of her astral projection as soon as she was about to gain more information. She opened her eyes and saw her roommate John, closing the cupboard in the corner and laying out his futon.

"I'm sorry for waking you up," he apologised when she yawned.

"It's fine," she sighed and closed her eyes again. There was a chance that she could astral project into the same time range again, but there was no guarantee of where she would go and it was unlikely she would see a direct continuation.

The amnesiac was correct, where she ended up this time was completely different. She recognised the location as being the living room at Ayako's apartment but with a more modern television than the one she remembered and less leopard print cushions. Seated on the sofa were the priestess and monk, in one armchair was Masako Hara and in the other armchair was herself again, this time with shorter hair.

"Jou-chan, the old lady and I have handed in our resignation letters at SPR. We can't work for that damn narcissist ever again," Bou-san informed her. "He won't get any help from us unless he begs us."

"Are you sure about that?" Mai's non amnesiac counterpart questioned, clasping her hands together. As she did so, Mai observed that she wasn't wearing a ring this time. "He did pay you."

Bou-san waved his hand. "We'll be fine, Jou-chan. I did work on cases before SPR if you remember. How about you, Masako-san?"

Masako hid her face behind her kimono sleeve before answering.

"If he asks for my help, I will give him assistance. We don't wish for his death and if he has insufficient information on a case, he may do something that endangers his life again."

"It's fine, Masako-chan," the brunette replied. "I'm very annoyed with him, but I do not wish him dead."

"Where's your ring?" Ayako gestured at her hand. "Did you send it to him along with the other stuff?"

"I'm keeping to remind myself to choose someone better next time."

Mai waited for more revelations to come, but found herself being pulled out of her dream by someone shaking her awake.

"Mai-san!"

She managed to make out John's face in the darkness of the bedroom.

"What?" she groaned groggily.

"Something has happened downstairs," he said and Mai sat up instantly.

They rushed down the stairs, through the hallway and into the living room where the rest of the team were crouched over something on the floor.

"Lin, how long did the ambulance say they would be?" Naru was asking.

"Fifteen minutes," the omnouji answered tersely. "We need to staunch the bleeding otherwise it might be too late for her."

Mai walked over and peered over their heads and immediately understood the urgency. The client, Hokuto Sumeragi was lying on the floor with blood flowing from deep gashes in her wrists. Her eyes were closed and her skin had taken on a deathly pallor. Yasuhara passed Lin a roll of parcel tape from the kitchen the omnouji wrapped the tape tightly around her wrists.

The ambulance arrived shortly after and Yasuhara elected to accompany the client along with her husband to the hospital.

The investigators adjourned to the base and sat around the table whist the omnouji went through the camera footage to find the event.

"It was fortunate that I happened to pass the base on my way to the bathroom and notice activity on the monitors," Lin said. "She might be dead if I hadn't."

"She was possessed, wasn't she?" Mai questioned.

"This should show it," Lin pointed at a monitor and they all watched Hokuto Sumeragi step out of her bedroom with a vacant look in her eyes and walk slowly down the stairs, take a knife from the kitchen and slit her wrists in the middle of the living room.

"The spirit clearly has a murderous intent towards Sumeragi-san," the former narcissist observed the obvious.

"But this house was built before she was born," the amnesiac pointed out.

Naru looked her in the eye and Mai's brain finally had the opportunity to add up the observations from her astral projection. She had been engaged to someone that like wearing dark colours and pale blue pyjamas and employed Ayako, Bou-san and Masako and she only knew one person that met that criteria.

Naru.

She had been engaged to Naru.

That had not been something that she had been expecting to find up. Naru's rejection of her confession two years, no eight years ago had always been fresh in her mind and she had only maintained a work relationship with him so this revelation was shocking for her.

"...Mai!"

Naru's voice caused her to jump in her seat.

"Mai, I asked you if you had a dream."

The brunette didn't feel like she could look at his face after finding out the truth so she settled for keeping her gaze fixed on the table and muttering a reply.

"No."

It hadn't been possible for her to have a dream regarding the case because she had been busy astral projecting into the past and now the client had nearly died and they didn't have an clues.

"The key to solving this case is Hokuto Sumeragi-san. She is the only occupant of this house reported to have been possessed," Lin observed and Mai turned her eyes on him as everyone would be suspicious if she looked down at the table all the time,

Naru nodded. "The one who talked to her most would be Mai. Tell us everything you know, Mai."

The brunette recalled their conversation in the kitchen and another they had in the evening when Mai was supposed to be interviewing her and they had ended up gossiping.

"She is 24," she began unsurely. "She is a few months pregnant."

Due to the fact that she was determined not look at Naru she missed his flinch.

"She is newly married and her maiden name is Kuzuki and she has an identical twin and that's all I know."

There was a thoughtful silence as all the investigators tried to come up with an avenue of investigation.

"This house is built on a graveyard, there is a restless spirit which indicates a murder," John said out loud. "Perhaps we should ask Yasuhara-san to check out her family tree as the event must have happened in the past."

Mai gave him a thumbs up. "That sounds like a good idea."

John looked at Naru for affirmation.

"I will call Yasuhara-san," the scientists said.

He stood up and walked out of the room leaving Mai with the priest and omnouji. Grateful for Naru's absence, Mai rested her head on the table and sighed heavily.

"Are you all right, Mai-san?" John asked worriedly.

Mai opened one eye and realised that this was the perfect opportunity to ask for confirmation. Like she had predicted before, Lin and John were more likely to tell her things from the past than the monk, Ayako or Yasuhara.

"I astral projected last night," she blurted out.

Lin and John looked puzzled and exchanged confused glances.

"What did you see?"

"I was engaged. To Naru."

The frozen looks on their faces followed by knowing looks confirmed everything for Mai and she knew that it was undoubtedly true.

"I was really engaged to Naru," she moaned. "And no one told me or even hinted at it."

Even as she said that her memory backtracked to cut off sentences that she hadn't picked up on at the time.

Bou-san at the hospital: "you even dat-"

Naru, when she had enquired about his newfound manners: "It was something about being kinder to your gi- employees."

That time with Naru at the restaurant: "Mai, how can I be a narcissist if I am in-"

Her phone call to Keiko now seemed to be strange, her best friend hadn't mentioned her past relationship with Naru and it would have been one of the first things to tell your amnesiac best friend. Then she remembered that Naru had been in very close proximity when she had written the reminder to call her. Clearly he had got to Keiko before her.

She sighed, she was supposed to be psychic and she had missed all of these signs.

"Mai-san."

She looked up to see Lin staring at her in concern.

"I'm sorry that I could not tell you. An agreement was made between all of us not to mention your relationship until later on as mentally you are still 17 and it would be too much for you to take in at once."

Mai took "us" to mean all of the old SPR irregulars. It did explain their shifty behaviour whoever any mention of Naru came up.

"I understand Lin-san. I just don't like knowing that something important is being kept from me by all of the people that I trust and like," she answered sadly. "When did we start dating?"

"When you were 18. It was a great surprise to you but not anyone else because we had all observed how Naru stared at you and always softened around you and took care to introduce you to his parents when they came here for a visit- he didn't bother introducing anyone else," he explained with a small smile. "I'm afraid to say that the manner in which he asked you to be his girlfriend was not very romantic."

Mai leaned forward to hear more, forgetting that she was annoyed with everyone for keeping it back from her.

"You had a close encounter with a ghost that carried an axe," Lin started and Mai remembered one of her dreams that she had had on her first night after being discharged from the hospital. "After rescuing you and whilst everyone else was doing the exorcism, he turned to you and told you that you were too dim-witted to survive on your own hunting ghosts and that you should always stay close to him as his handsomeness and brains would protect you. Then he dragged you off and I believe that I heard kissing noises when I walked through the house later on to pack up the equipment."

A blush spread up Mai's face and she flushed a brick shade of red. Had that really happened? She had made out with Naru... she had been kissed by someone that she had always loved and she had always believed it would be unrequited and her rejected confession had given that belief credence.

She sobered on remembering what she had seen of the aftermath of the break up. The incident two years ago must have been their break up. That said, something must have caused it and she was sure it was something major if she was supposed to check her hospital records.

"Mai-san," Lin whispered suddenly. "Considering that Noll was my charge and I work for his parents- I should not tell you this, but I think Noll is planning something. "I saw him put a photo in the case report yesterday when I was driving the van."

Mai raised an eyebrow. She had guessed that Naru was up to something when she had remembered his job offer, her phone call to Keiko and the mysteriously appearing photos.

"Did I send a collection of photos to him after we broke up?" she asked.

"Yes. I think Noll keeps them in a desk drawer at the office and a few in his apartment," Lin replied, looking suspicious of her sudden question. "There was a large framed photo of you two on a date that used to be in his hallway but it isn't there anymore."

The door to the base opened and the trio for the second time in two days lurched into action and tried to look busy. Lin grabbed his headphone and John and Mai picked up ghost hunting books from the stack on the floor.

"I have dispatched Yasuhara to research Sumeragi-san's family tree," the lead investigator announced and sat back down in his seat. "Mai, tea."

Mai practically fled from the base, due to her desire to stay away from her former fiancée for now.

Naru's eyes turned cold. "Did something happen whilst I was gone?"

Hokuto Sumeragi is one of the main character is a manga that was my first exposure to ghost hunting and Omnouji which caused me to raise an eyebrow whilst reading Ghost Hunt and several things were portrayed different like summoning Shiki and the Nine Cuts. (Shiki are summoned using a piece of paper with a pentagram and slashing motions are not required for the Nine Cuts)