Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt. The anime wouldn't have ended before we found out Naru's real identity lol.
Chapter 12 – Multiple Ghosts and Double Entendres
-0O0-
Mai froze, eyes flying around the cavernous space. She couldn't see the presence, even though it was growing stronger by the minute. She heard a door slam somewhere. Then she felt the new spirit draw closer to them… toward Lin.
Even as Mai swung to face the onmyouji, she felt the spirit… pause. She could barely see a smoky outline, as if the spirit had gathered all the dust from the rafters and surrounded itself with a dirty gray covering. She could feel intense anger emanating from this spirit, and its harmful power raked across Mai's senses. This one wanted to do harm… but it wasn't moving forward and wasn't preparing energy for an attack.
It was hard to get anything else on it. Mai bit her lip in frustration, narrowing her eyes at the barely-there ghost as if that would help her read it better. The way the spirit hung there in front of the alert Lin… it was almost like it was sizing him up. For what, exactly? Mai suddenly felt like dozens of eyes were on her and realized that the spirit was watching her now. Yet she visualized lots of glowing eyes in her mind… what did that mean? The spirit's regard shifted to Yasuhara briefly… before disappearing completely. Mai hurriedly searched the adjoining rooms with her othersense. She found no malicious whatever-it-was… but the first, docile spirit wasn't around, either. They were both gone. Mai let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
Then the door to the room where Naru and Bou-san had been smashed open. That must have been the door that closed, Mai figured. But the nasty spirit's whole attention had been on Lin, Yasu, and herself. Had the first spirit trapped the others? Why would it have done that? Mai was distracted from her thoughts by the re-emergence of Naru and Bou-san, breathing heavily and coughing from the dust that had kicked up when the door hit the floor. The grime curling around them reminded Mai of the smoky film that had surrounded the angry spirit.
"You guys okay?" Yasuhara asked solicitously.
"Yeah, are you?" Bou-san asked. "I felt something else out here, but our spirit locked us in."
I guess that answers one question. But why did it shut them in? "We're fine," Mai answered. "The second spirit… is angry and violent. But it just… observed us, I think. Then it disappeared."
"Observed you?" Naru repeated.
"Yeah, I felt it look over each of us in turn. Lin first, and it watched him the longest," Mai answered. "Then me, then Yasu. I felt like it… dismissed us, or something."
"None of you are middle-aged men," Naru reminded her. "The spirit has preyed exclusively on that demographic. I would postulate that it assessed Lin the longest because he is the oldest male out of the three of you."
"But it didn't look at, er, assess you guys," Mai said, confused. Bou-san was around the same age as Lin.
"I do not think that it was aware of them," Lin informed her. "The spirit materialized in this room and immediately focused on us. The door slamming… perhaps the non-violent presence was attempting to guard Noll and Bou-san?"
"It's possible," Naru said after a moment. "It would explain the agitation Bou-san sensed in the first spirit once the other presence made itself known."
As if hearing someone call for it, the first spirit reappeared in the doorway to the other room. Mai, Lin, and Bou-san all turned towards it immediately.
"It's going back into the other room," Mai said, her eyes following the wispy form until it disappeared. Bou-san and Naru walked straight toward it. "Guys, wait, maybe you should…" They ignored her and disappeared again.
Mai exchanged a glance with Lin.
"We should probably follow them," Lin noted, not moving an inch. He found he wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect. The second spirit was bound to notice the presence of more male invaders and might attack… and genital-crushing wasn't something Lin really wanted to rush into.
Mai seemed to understand his reluctance and giggled. She couldn't sense any danger, anyway - even the feeling of foreboding Mai felt upon the entering the warehouse had lessened considerably. Her instincts told her that Bou-san and Naru were safe.
Yasuhara made a noise. "Well, I'm not going in there. I like my manhood nice and un-crunched, thank you very much." His glasses flashed. "I do wonder about our more intrepid investigators, though… Bou-san and Naru just walked right back in there. I'm not sure whether that makes them brave or reckless."
"Well, Bou-san just jumps right into things," Mai replied. "He probably hasn't even considered the consequences."
"Naru surely has, though." Yasuhara grinned. "So, reckon he's brave, then? I think he's worryingly unconcerned about future functionality."
"Functionality?" Mai asked innocently.
Lin groaned under his breath. Madoka snorted.
"Unconcerned for the functionality of his manhood," Yasuhara elaborated brightly, enjoying Mai's obliviousness. "Which would be worrying, of course… because it infers Naru doesn't anticipate a need for usability."
Lin felt this would be a good time to turn the camera off. Where was that button again?
"Whaaa…?" Mai was still a little lost.
Yasuhara rolled his eyes, grinning slyly. "Don't be so dense, Mai-chan. I'm saying that Naru, given his constant lack of romantic companionship, might not feel functionality of his manly equipment is a must."
Mai finally got it, and blushed so hard that Lin wondered whether she'd pass out from the blood rush. He finally located the power button… and resolved to edit this entire conversation out before letting the professor (or Naru) near the video.
"Yasu!" Mai yelled, so loud that dust must be shaking from the rafters. "Don't say things like that!"
"Quite the decibel level there, Mai-chan. Is your strong response a sign of concern for the safety of your future sex life?" Yasuhara teased remorselessly. "That's practical of you."
Mai actually burned redder, which the still-watching Lin hadn't thought was possible. Then again, the onmyouji was having a hard time controlling his facial expressions as well, especially as his hysterically giggling girlfriend was now using him to hold herself up. He busied himself with the camera's self-lighting program and tried to block them all out.
Head in her hands, Mai racked her brain for something to throw back at Yasuhara. "You should be worried, too, Yasu," she finally managed. "I mean, Bou-san and Naru are both in a possible crunching zone. Wasn't it lust at first sight when you met them on your first case? Shouldn't you be concerned about the future of your sex life?"
Madoka considered this interesting tidbit. So Noll had asked Yasu to join SPR even after receiving a confession of homoerotic lust? How had that happened? Noll had no sense of humor when it came to the workplace.
Yasuhara smiled coyly. "Of course I'm worried, Mai-chan, but not really for myself. Unfortunately, I don't think it's meant to be. Both of those hotties have lasting commitments."
Mai looked lost again, waiting for clarification. Lin raised an eyebrow, wondering whether Yasuhara recognized Noll's unknowing interest in Mai. And would he really just blurt it out?
"Well," Yasuhara continued, "Bou-san is engaged, as I'm sure you've noticed, Mai-chan… and Naru's long-standing affair with himself keeps him from noticing my charms."
Mai burst out laughing, while Lin breathed a secret sigh of relief. They were here to investigate, not to have ill-timed romantic revelations distracting the highly distractible Mai.
"You know," Mai wheezed between giggles, "I think you're ignoring the most probable reason for Naru's lack of concern."
"And what's that?" Yasuhara asked.
"Naru's unshakable pride probably protects him from even thinking his... equipment could be in danger," Mai snickered.
Yasuhara and Madoka laughed uproariously, and even Lin smirked. Mai was undoubtedly correct.
"But Noll should worry about his equipment a little," Madoka said blithely. "After all, if he is in an affair with himself… he'll need it for his own use."
At this, Yasuhara actually fell over in hysterics. Lin audibly choked and almost dropped the camera.
An overwhelmed Mai just put her head in her hands and tried very hard not to think about... Naru doing that. "Ugh, you guys are awful!" she cried. "I'm going after them!" As she turned on her heel, though, she felt the first ghost's presence vanish. "Oh, never mind. The first spirit's gone again." Mai shook her head to clear it, trying desperately to think of something to do that would get her away from the laughing pervs. "I'm going to start setting up."
"How unexpectedly industrious, Mai."
Naru's voice surprised the teen psychic and she jumped. Naru passed her swiftly, managing to carefully pick up a monitor without even slowing. Mai envied his grace.
"See, Mai-chan?" Madoka said knowingly. "Noll does care about the equipment. He knows he needs it for his business."
"Urusai!" Mai screamed, so frazzled she reverted to Japanese. Yanking a tripod from the pile, she ran for the designated base.
Naru whipped around at hearing Mai yell – only to see Yasuhara and Madoka falling all over themselves laughing. Then Mai zoomed past him, her face bright red. Confused, Naru looked to the unflappable Lin for an answer, but his Chinese associate was determinedly avoiding his eye and unnecessarily fussing with temperature gages.
There was a crash from the base. Mai, of course.
Yasuhara cupped a hand around his mouth to call out to the klutzy investigator. "Mai-chan! Be careful with Naru's equipment! You don't want to break it your first time holding it!"
"Shut UP!" Mai's frustrated shriek, this time in English, echoed off the warehouse's bare walls.
Madoka had to lean against Lin and the equipment pile to keep from collapsing with laughter.
Naru narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "I have no idea what puerile game you're playing, but please refrain from upsetting Mai any further. That equipment is expensive and insurance doesn't cover everything."
"Big Boss, I'm sure the kind of surgery required to fix your equipment would be covered. I mean, survival of the species is important – so I'm sure the procedure would count as a necessity to your insurance provider."
Naru just stared at Yasuhara, who was attempting to look innocent but losing badly. Madoka sniggering into Lin's arm was not helping Yasu's case, either. Naru's mentor finally managed to pick up a few shelves and staggered towards the base, still half-hysterical. Knowing that asking would lead to nothing good, Naru decided not to bother.
He focused on Mai's grinning researcher. "Yasuhara, get moving. This all needs to be set up by nightfall." Another crash sounded from the base and Naru closed his eyes in frustration. "Start by gathering up the extension cords. I'm going to assist Mai before whatever she is handling dies a quick death."
Yasuhara's eyes popped wide and Madoka dropped her shelves. Lin just groaned.
"Yeah, you should go assist her with that," Yasuhara replied, a huge grin on his face. "Premature equipment death is a very serious problem."
Madoka, already near the floor to pick up her shelves, fell over completely. Lin (unable to take any more) pinched the bridge of his nose, swept up an armload of gear, and race-walked to base.
At the word 'premature,' Naru clicked that the nonsense Yasuhara was spewing had to be sexually derived. He remembered the period of time that Gene had sought similar amusement, twisting perfectly normal sentences into dirty jokes. It had been a very trying few months. After much arguing, Naru came to the conclusion that ignoring his twin was the only way to stop it. Luella, the psychologist, called it 'extinction behavior.' Ignore it and it will stop.
With this thought in mind, Naru addressed the foul-minded assistant. "Yasuhara, as you seem determined to be useless on site, you can fetch lunch for the group. And seeing as you've wasted at least ten minutes of our time with whatever idiotic word-association joke this is, you can pay back my time with your money. You're buying. Now go." Naru turned on his heel and faced Madoka. "The client should be returning in a few minutes. I assume, as the lead investigator, you'll want to meet him in base and not on the floor." Naru shifted the monitor to one hand and picked up two of Madoka's shelves. "Surely you can manage the rest," he said frigidly before marching off.
Yasuhara and Madoka stared blankly at one another for a moment. Then they cracked again, snickering quietly into their sleeves.
"Poor Mai-chan," Madoka noted, wiping tears from her eyes. "Pulling the stick out of him is going to take a while."
"It's alright – Mai-chan is a fighter," Yasuhara replied with relish. "So, what do you want for lunch?"
-0O0-
Mai watched Bou-san and Yasuhara trudge upstairs to position two more cameras. When they were finished, Madoka reckoned SPR could leave for the night. Mai stood just outside the base (formerly an employee lounge), staring into the main room of the haunted warehouse. Darkness had fallen outside, and the warehouse's interior lighting wasn't really bright enough to finish equipment set-up. Madoka and Ayako had found a couple of floodlights in a storage closet, which were now set up on opposite sides of the main room. Mai was relieved to see them; the shadows produced by the less-than-stellar lighting had creeped her out.
Speaking of shadows… Mai bit her lip and stared at the spot where the other presence had disappeared. If she looked closely enough, she could almost see something hulking in the corner. She pulled her trusty flashlight from her jacket pocket and shone it into the dark space. Nothing. Just the circle of light, wobbling slightly as Mai's fingers shook in the chilly air. And some cobwebs. But still, Mai's attention was drawn to that corner – and not just because the second ghost had disappeared there. Her instincts were calling to her. Something there, something important. She bit her lip. At the very least, they should have a camera over there.
Fortuitously, a camera was sitting not four feet from her, facing the center of the main room. There were two other cameras focused on the middle of the room – overkill, in Mai's opinion. It should be over there, Mai knew in her gut. In the corner. She glanced back at Naru and Lin, who were poring over computer readouts, talking to Bou-san via walkie-talkie, and not paying any attention to her. Mai knew she should tell them she was moving the camera, but she really didn't want to spend the next twenty minutes arguing about it with Naru. SPR was almost done and Mai's creepy senses had been tingling since nightfall – she wanted out of here.
So she slunk out of the base doorway and picked up the camera, including the leather bag that held extra tapes. She tried to be extra-quiet as she unraveled the extension cord and snuck across the warehouse floor. A silly part of her tried to avoid looking into the dark space as she hastily positioned the lens to face directly into the corner. Suddenly, Mai saw a flash out of the corner of her eye.
A ripple of prickles across her skin was the only warning of incoming unconsciousness. Mai felt her knees give and regretted that no one was around to catch her as she collapsed to the floor.
-0O0-
Mai found herself standing in the same room – only it was now very dark. Only a few lights were on overhead – the way a warehouse would look if it were closed for the night. But surely no one would have left her here! No way, she told herself firmly, tamping down the panic inside. My friends would never leave me here. She was dreaming – of another night at the warehouse.
A cursory trip around the room verified this – lots of strange equipment lined the walls, only a few of which were there now. A huge conveyor belt dominated the central space, linking the rooms together. There were boxes lined up at the end of the belt; Mai guessed that the boxes held whatever the warehouse produced during whatever time period this was. Much more experienced after three years of psychic dreaming, Mai automatically looked around for time-establishment help – maybe there was a newspaper around somewhere? She struck it rich by the door – a bulletin board listed employee information and government documents. The business license for the place said it was good until 1982. Okay, then. Next order of business – why was she here? There was no one around. No Gene, either, her mind supplied grimly. Mai focused on what was around – equipment and boxes.
When she got to the corner that had brought on the dream, Mai took in the unfamiliar piece of equipment that rested there. Gleaming and obviously well-used, it didn't seem really threatening. It's not like it was a saw or something (that was to the right, and Mai gave that a wide berth). But something about it twigged Mai's senses, so she studied it more closely. It had a crank, which apparently moved those two big pieces of flat metal somehow. What did it do? More importantly, what did it have to do with the case?
Suddenly, Mai heard the sounds of raucous laughter coming from somewhere. She flattened herself against the wall and glanced around, scared. She could hear men's voices… but couldn't make out anything specific. She looked to the stairs leading to the offices – were they up there? Should she go up there? Where was Gene when she needed him? Then the doorway to the offices opened and several men poured out. They were all carrying alcohol bottles and were obviously more than a little drunk.
"So what should we do tonight, fellas?" A voice asked. "I mean, other than break in and drink in the boss's office?" More laughter.
"Well, I guess we can drink some more down here," another voice suggested half-heartedly.
"Nah, I've got a better idea," a third voice said. Mai's hair stood on end; she didn't like this voice. "Why don't we go into the employee files and get some addresses for some people? I've got an idea about what to do to fix that guy."
"Sounds like a plan," the first voice replied. The group of men (faces unhelpfully obscured in the darkness of the room) wandered back upstairs, a few tripping over themselves, others laughing. The room faded as they vanished, and Mai felt the presence of the first spirit briefly as the world spun around her.
-0O0-
She groaned as she woke, sweeping a hand across her face and forcing her eyes open. Mai became aware of several people turning to look at her. Everyone was in the base. She was lying on an old couch, with Bou-san's coat thrown over her. A jacket Mai recognized as Ayako's was balled up under her head.
Yasuhara rushed into the room. "We're good, guys. Door's open now." Mai had no idea what to make of this statement. She was about to ask Yasu what was going on when her adopted father appeared in her line of sight.
"You back, jou-chan?" Bou-san asked her, holding her chin and searching for injuries. Mai almost said that she didn't actually get hurt in the visions… and then registered pain in her right knee and right shoulder. She rolled her shoulder experimentally and whimpered at the ache zinging down her right arm. She had probably landed on it.
"You hit your shoulder when you fell," Ayako observed, confirming Mai's guess. "You're lucky, you know – your head hit the camera bag instead of the floor."
Mai nodded. "Good," she said weakly. "Last thing I need is a concussion. How would we know if the dreams were real?"
"You dreamed, then?" Naru's quiet voice cut across her consciousness. Mai still wasn't used to him being there, ghost hunting with her again, and had to suppress a feeling of excitement before it showed on her face.
"Yeah," she replied. "It was 1981 or 1982, I think. I don't know how long business licenses are good for in England. And I was in the warehouse at night. There were boxes, lots of shiny, cared-for equipment. The place was obviously in business at the time. Low lighting – no one was supposed to be there. But there were a bunch of guys drinking in the offices. They'd snuck in and were looking for something to do. I couldn't see any faces, but there were a bunch of them. I heard three different people speak, and one of them was definitely bad. He gave me the shivers. He also suggested looking at the employee files; he wanted to find someone's address. To get back at them somehow. Then they left and I woke up." She said all of this immediately, so that somebody could get down as much as possible before details of the dream faded. You never knew what was going to wind up being important.
She heard Madoka scratching notes and Lin typing, but Mai only had eyes for Naru. Who regarded her with an expression of slight shock. Mai couldn't help grinning. She knew he wasn't expecting her to share so much – after all, when she worked for Japan's SPR, she rarely told anyone when she had dreams, let alone relay them with such detail. But I'm a lead investigator now, she reminded him with a smug look.
Naru narrowed his eyes, reaching for a case book without breaking eye contact. "I'm so thrilled that you've learned the value of cataloguing your experiences, Mai," he said condescendingly. "Did the men mention anything about why they wanted to get back at this particular person?"
"No," she said tersely, annoyed at Naru's superior tone. He always managed to turn it around on her!
The object of her fury smirked, knowing he had gotten to her. She's started it, hadn't she? Mai had a long way to go if she thought one dream re-telling was going to leave him dumbfounded.
Madoka sighed. "You guys can have your 'whose is bigger' contest later. Let's get everything you can remember down first, Mai."
Her new boss' no-nonsense voice pulled Mai back into the conversation. "Sorry, Madoka-san," she said. "Um, that's mostly it. Except there was a piece of equipment in a corner that… I could feel something from. But I don't know what the thing was or why it called to me. Oh! And the first spirit was there for a second! Not like it was already in the warehouse, but like I felt it as I was waking up."
"Maybe it was the one who showed you the dream?" Yasuhara hazarded.
"That makes sense," Naru said cryptically, making a note and studying Mai's face. She looked tired. "Let's go to the hotel. It's late, and we've already been locked in here once tonight."
"You mean 'today,' not 'tonight,'" Mai corrected him absentmindedly. "It was still daytime when you and Bou-san got trapped in the other room."
"No, Mai, I mean tonight," Naru replied testily. "We were all locked in the warehouse for the duration of your dream."
Her eyes widened. "I'm sorry," she said softly.
"How is it your fault?" Naru asked, snapping his case book shut. "It is just more evidence that the first ghost sent you the dream – he wanted to make sure you stayed to see it."
Mai smiled tremulously, her spirits buoyed by Naru's words. She stood up shakily, leaning heavily on Bou-san. "Then let's go," she said rather jauntily. "This place is creepy."
Naru decided that Mai was back to normal and grabbed his coat. "Haunted places usually are, Mai."
-0O0-
"I don't know why we didn't see this coming," Mai groaned, beating the stuck front door with her fists.
"Yeah, we did get locked in last night. We probably should have left the door open or something," Madoka agreed.
"Of course, because the spirits haven't already closed numerous doors on us," Naru drawled, already searching the floor plan for safe places to sleep.
"Well, sure, Naru. But remember that case with the class who died in the bus crash? We only got locked in after closing the door."
"I suppose that's true," he agreed absentmindedly, locating a room upstairs that might be suitable. Apparently, the officers of the corporation had their own private lounge; there were couches in there, and Madoka had brought emergency sleeping bags after getting locked in the night before. If Naru went up there now, he could make up a couch for himself before Madoka ordered all the men to sleep on the floor.
Mai allowed herself a grin – Naru actually agreed with her! A win! She ran her fingers down the seam of the door, trying to find any give. None. "Okay, there's no exit. I guess we're sleeping here tonight." She sighed. "I can feel the psychic nightmares coming on already."
"Well, we do need information," Madoka noted. "Other than a police file on hazing and some drunk employees from 1982, we've got nothing."
"What is hazing, anyway?" Mai asked. "I don't know that word."
"Did your classmates ever steal someone's shoes, or hide books to be mean?" Madoka asked her.
"Um, yeah, some girls did that. There was this one girl who stole my friend Yuka-chan's class ring in junior year… and a few of Yuka-chan's friends tormented her for a while. They ended up fighting in the classroom and my other friend Keiko-chan almost got…"
"Obviously Mai understands the concept, Madoka," Naru grumbled. "Bring the conversation back around before we have to hear about every episode of hazing that occurred at Mai's high school."
"Hey!" Mai pouted.
"Right, so that would be considered hazing, Mai-chan," Madoka said firmly, stopping the argument before it started. "Now let's find somewhere to hole up for the night, so Koujo and Bou-san can start warding it."
"We should stay in the corporate officers' private lounge upstairs," Naru stated firmly. "It will be the most comfortable place, and big enough for all of us to stay together."
"We're all going to stay in one room?" Mai asked, her voice higher than normal. She was going to sleep in the same room as Naru?
Ayako winked at Mai, guessing her thoughts. "It would be safest," she noted, smiling at her future daughter's blush.
"Excellent! Mai-chan, we can share a sleeping bag to conserve heat," Yasuhara's serious tone was belied by his dancing eyes. "It'll save space, too!"
"Absolutely not," Bou-san snapped. "Mai will be sleeping on one of the couches, and I'll be sleeping on the floor right next to it. So don't even try it, shounen!"
Naru glared daggers at the bespectacled teen. "Yasuhara, we are supposed to be professionals on a case. Refrain from propositioning Mai."
"Just Mai?" Yasuhara asked, grinning. "One would think that you would ask me not to proposition anyone, Big Boss."
Lin wondered how Yasuhara managed to get the light to flash off his teeth like that. He was also now positive that the observant teen had picked up on Naru's deeper feelings for Mai Taniyama. The brief, gleeful glance that Madoka threw Yasuhara immediately filled Lin with dread – if those two were working together… Lin felt sorry for Naru.
Who didn't answer, but instead snatched a sleeping bag from the emergency stash and strode towards the stairs. He felt the childish urge to demand that Yasuhara sleep in the lounge's attached shower stall. Pity he wasn't SPR's lead investigator.
"Girls get the couches, Noll!" Madoka trilled from behind him. Naru whirled to face the foiler of his plans. She sparkled back at him. "Besides, you and Koujo are on base duty tonight. The two of you barely sleep, anyway."
"A logical choice," Ayako agreed, smiling slyly as she shouldered past the glaring Naru.
-0O0-
Lin looked up to see a groggy Mai wending her way down the main stairs.
"Is she sleepwalking?" Naru asked softly.
His assistant squinted at the screen, trying to get a look at Mai's face. Then she tripped a bit, sliding down two steps and barely managing to catch the railing. "I don't believe so, no," Lin replied coolly.
A minute later, Mai meandered into the base. Without a word to either person in the room, she collapsed over the side of the couch and crawled up its length. Her questing fingers found a throw pillow and she burrowed into it. "Ugh," she groaned into the upholstery. "Trying to sleep in a haunted warehouse sucks. Especially when I've got Princess Ayako whining about space heaters. Madoka-san just goes to sleep like a normal person, but Ayako? Nooo. Even Masako-chan is better behaved at bedtime."
Lin continued typing and Naru kept reading. Both knew Mai would eventually stop talking.
"After two hours, she's still whining about the cold. 'All that money for cameras and only one space heater,'" Mai muttered, imitating Ayako. "She's driving me crazy."
"So you've elected to inflict similar distractions upon us?" Naru asked, an annoyed edge to his usual monotone.
"No," Mai mumbled. "I'm coming here to sleep."
"We'll be typing and comparing notes for hours. And there is a lot of light in here." Naru wasn't actually trying to get Mai to leave; he just didn't understand her thinking.
"It'll still be more relaxing than listening to Ayako," Mai replied tiredly. "If only I knew where she kept her... sedatives, I'd give her one…"
Naru looked up in interest. Mai had switched back to Japanese about halfway through her last sentence. He felt a strange urge to keep her talking.
"I don't think you should administer needles, Mai," Naru noted, speaking Japanese himself.
"Good point," Mai replied, almost asleep. "I'd probably do it wrong and then there'd be blood everywhere. Like on the vise."
Lin and Naru both paused and stared at Mai.
"What do you mean, 'on the vise?'" Naru asked, keeping his voice calm so as not to alarm Mai.
"There's blood all over the vise," Mai responded, eyes closed and voice soft. "One of the foremen saw the spots after they tried to clean it up. That's how they got caught."
"That's how who got caught?" Naru persisted gently.
"The people who did it," his target replied unhelpfully. She was almost totally out now.
"Did what, Mai?"
There was no answer. She was sleeping. Naru immediately wondered whether Mai was still 'here' or in a dream of the past.
"Maybe when she wakes up, she'll know more," Lin noted, obviously thinking along the same lines as Naru.
Naru nodded, eyes still on Mai. She shivered on the couch. Mai was wearing warm pajamas, but this warehouse was certainly colder than their usual domestic locales. And they hadn't planned for keeping the base warm overnight. Sighing, Naru retrieved a blanket from Madoka's emergency bag. He tucked it around Mai's prone body, noticing that she stopped shivering almost immediately. As she snuggled cutely into the blanket, Naru felt Lin's eyes on his back.
"If she wakes up now, we won't get any information," Naru explained, irrationally feeling the need to clarify his motives.
His longtime assistant hid a smirk.
-0O0-
AN: Sorry this is a day late I've been sick all week and couldn't edit properly. My head finally cleared enough to make sense of words today!