London, Cambridge
It was confirmed—Naru was rich.
"I wanna take back what I asked for on my birthday." Mai said in a daze, staring up at the structure in front of her. "I want a necklace. Diamonds. Real big."
"You're greedy." Naru huffed from behind her. He was pulling out their suitcases from the trunk of the taxi, struggling to lift hers. "—and inconsiderate. Are you not going to help me?"
She waved him off, letting him continue to struggle as she took in the house in front of her, if it could even be considered a house. It was exactly what she would expect to see in a movie set in England. Old-fashioned, bricked, complete with the window shutters and long driveway.
"Matching earrings, too." She added on as an afterthought.
"Mai." His tone was warning.
Tearing her eyes away from the beauty of his home, she turned and grabbed her suitcase from him. Together they walked up to the front door, which swung open from inside before he could even touch the handle.
"Welcome home, big boss!"
Naru's face fell hilariously when they were greeted by Yasuhara's mischievous grin.
"Where's my mother?" He asked immediately, shoving past the boy. "And why are you answering the door at someone else's house?"
Yasu pulled Mai in for a hug, pouting at their boss. "I was excited to see you." When he only received a flat look in response, he jerked his finger over his shoulder. "I woke up this morning with a cold, so she's making soup for lunch." He sniffled for good measure.
Unable to help herself, Mai giggled.
Yasu had only been here a day, and he seemed to have made himself right at home.
"How was your trip, Mai?" He asked. "Did you have so much fun spending an extra night in Dubai? I bet you lost your suitcase on purpose, you sly little thing!"
Before she could respond, Luella appeared down the long hallway as she rounded the corner, violet eyes falling upon her son. "Oliver, my sweet boy!" She cried out softly, seeming surprised to see him. "I thought you were going to call me when you arrived. I would have come to pick you up from the airport."
The English blurred together with how fast she spoke. Mai was just piecing together what she said when Naru spoke, sending her straight into shock.
"We arrived earlier than expected. I didn't want to have to wait." He replied in the same language, his words lilt with an English accent.
It really shouldn't have surprised her, but Naru having an accent when he spoke English wasn't even something that crossed her mind since she had never actually heard him speak anything but Japanese. It was... nice? In her distracted state, their next words flew by without her comprehending them, and it only occurred that they were talking to her when Yasu elbowed her.
"What?" She replied in Japanese, staring at them wide eyed.
Naru blinked back at her. "I thought you're English was good?" He said in Japanese, the words flying right over Luella's head with how fast he spoke them.
The change up confused Mai. "It... is."
"Then speak, idiot. She asked if you understand English."
"Oh!" Mai looked to Luella with a nervous smile. "I can speak English. Sorry, I'm just a little tired."
"No worries, dear." The honey blonde women waved off her apology. "You're probably jet-lagged. How about you two go and get settled in your rooms, then come down for something to eat. Yasu can show you the way!"
When the boy beamed at the mention of his name, Naru scoffed. "I think I can find my way." He replied sarcastically, beginning to make his way up the staircase directly in front of them.
"Oliver, are you not going to help carry her suitcase?" Luella admonished. When her son motioned towards Yasu with an exasperated look, she wagged her finger at him. "Don't make our guests work while they're in our home. Carry her suitcase."
Mai gingerly let him take her suitcase in his other hand, and both her and Yasu followed him up the stairs, sharing amused smiles.
"Which room is it?" Naru asked reluctantly when they stopped in the middle of the hallway. He had placed his suitcase in front of one of the many doors, probably his room.
"She's sharing with Masako." Yasu pointed to the door next to his.
Naru followed his finger and for a split second, he stiffened, and then walked towards it, pushing the door open to deposit her suitcase. When he paused in the doorway, taking in the space, Mai knew then that it had been Gene's room when he was alive.
"Thank you." She said as he walked past her towards his room. He didn't even reply as he disappeared behind the door.
"Hard flight?" Yasu asked, already sensing their boss's bad mood.
"Hard flights." She corrected.
"Well, I'm glad you made it. I'll leave you to get settled."
He left, closing the door behind him, and she was finally able to take in the space she would be staying in for the next week.
It was a nicely sized room, with enough space for a king-sized mattress to sit in the middle and still have room for a dresser and a desk. Curiously, Mai opened the drawers and found that Masako had claimed two of them. She moved on, opening a door to what she thought was a closet and instead found a personal bathroom, which had Masako's toiletries placed neatly about. Her eyes focused on the door at the other end of the bathroom, blinking in surprise when she realized that it led to Naru's room.
It was shared bathroom, one that the two boys had probably used together growing up.
Letting out a sigh, she closed the bathroom door and took a seat on the edge of the bed, her eyes trailing over every surface she could find for a sign of him.
"So, this is where you lived, huh?" She whispered to the quiet room, half expecting Gene to reply.
Trembling hands, broken Japanese, and eyes glistening with tears of grief—that was what Mai remembered of her boss's mother from two years ago.
Luella Davis still bore the same violet eyes and honey blonde hair that curled slightly in at her shoulders, but she felt like a completely different person now. Now, she was in her own home, speaking her own language, and far removed from the horrifying scenario of searching for her dead son.
Luella was... warm. Mai couldn't think of a better word to describe her. She felt the women's warmth from her hand, which squeezed her shoulder in thanks as she helped her clean up the dinner table. She felt it from her gaze that looked upon her son, her lips curling upwards every time she walked into the room and seemed to realize that he was back home.
Warm like the morning sun, warm like an embrace, warm like a mother.
"Good night, Mai." She pulled her in for a hug. "I'm glad to have you in our home. It was about time I properly met my son's friends."
Mai smiled, returning her hug briefly. "Thank you for having us."
Warm, warm, warm. It truly was a wonder that a woman like Luella raised someone as cold as Naru. That thought stayed in her mind as she fell asleep that night, listening to the sound of Masako's light breathing in the bed next to her. It only occurred to her that Luella didn't raise Naru alone when she came face to face with his father the next morning.
Martin Davis was as dignified as she remembered him being, with his dark blue eyes and greying brown hair. He was dressed in a white dress shirt and slacks, leaning back against the counter as he pursued a newspaper with a coffee mug lifted to his lips.
"What a pity. That breakfast cafe we liked caught fire last night. Arson, it says here." He looked up, his words halting as he met her eyes. "Oh, you're not my wife."
"No." Mai said, slightly caught off guard. "I'm—"
"Mai Taniyama." Martin cut in. He placed his newspaper down on the counter behind him and reached forward to shake her hand. "I remember you."
She shook his hand, surprised by the firmness of which he gripped her fingers. "It's nice to see you again, Mr. Davis."
"Likewise." He said with a nod and then turned to reach into the cupboards for a cup. "Do you prefer tea or coffee in the morning, Ms. Taniyama?"
"Coffee."
He poured her a cup. "Sugar? Cream?"
"Both? Oh, thank you." In a matter of seconds, he placed the cup in her hands as he walked past her towards the door.
"Are you normally an early riser?" He asked over his shoulder.
Realizing he meant for her to follow, she hurried after him, careful not to spill as she walked. "N-not normally this early." She replied as they turned into the living room, where he made himself comfortable in an armchair. She took a seat on the loveseat next to it. "I went to bed early last night."
"Yes, I head you and Oliver had a rather rough flight—if I must say, Ms. Taniyama, you're English is phenomenal."
"T-thank you." She blinked at him, having a hard time keeping up with how fast he seemed to change subjects.
He took a sip from his mug, observing her over the rim with a smile she couldn't decipher. "I have no idea why Oliver told me that you're English was barely conversational. You seem to be keeping up quite well for someone who isn't a native speaker."
Naru had said what? Her eyebrows twisted inwards before it dawned on her what he was trying to get at, although some of his words didn't make sense to her.
"She was just being modest, father." A new presence entered the room, dressed in a similar fashion to his father. Naru took a seat next to her, meeting her eyes briefly. "Too modest, I realize now. You're English is far beyond barely conversational, Mai." He added onto his fib easily.
Mai blinked back at him. "What is, uh... rarely conbi...?"
"Barely conversational." Naru supplied for her in Japanese, his accent slipping away as if he was a chameleon. "I told my father that you're English wasn't very good, since that's what we agreed on."
Her eyebrows shot up. "You wanted me to pretend in front of your parents too?"
"It doesn't matter anymore." He said and then turned back to where Martin was looking in between them with interest, switching between languages easily. "Are you heading to work again?"
"Yes." Martin said. "Sorry I couldn't be here yesterday to welcome you home. The gala is only two days away, so I've got quite a bit of last minute planning to do. I take it your team is already prepared?"
The two of them conversed for a bit while Mai sat quietly, sipping her coffee occasionally. She was in the middle of noting the similarities in the way they spoke when something caught her attention.
"... since you graduated."
"What?" Two pairs of eyes swung to her, and she stared back. "You just said... Naru... graduated?"
Martin nodded. "Yes, just recently."
"From school?"
"That's usually where you graduate from, Mai." Naru replied blandly, causing his father's lips to quirk upwards.
Mai blinked at her boss, confused. "I thought you said you graduated from high school early."
"I did. We're talking about university." His eyebrows furrowed inwards. "Did Madoka not tell you what I was doing for the two years I was away?" When she only kept on with the lost stare, he continued. "I was finishing my degree."
"Finishing?" She repeated, and then it finally clicked. "Wait. Before you came to Japan, you were a university student?"
"Yes. At Cambridge University. I majored in Philosophy of Religion"
Mai's eyes bulged out of her head. "You—what?!"
"He also wrote a book." Martin suddenly said, his eyes glittering with pride. "It's called The Paranormal System, and it was so well researched that he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Parapsychology."
A doctorate? Like—
Naru read the look on her face immediately. "Yes, Mai. A doctorate. That's why people always refer to me as Dr. Oliver Davis."
Martin must have thought she wasn't shocked enough by this information, because he dropped an even bigger bomb on her. "He got an offer to be a professor at New York University for a Parapsychology course, but he had to decline it because he was only sixteen when—oh, would you look at the time." He caught sight of his watch and stood, smiling down at Mai's frozen figure. "It was nice speaking with you, Ms. Taniyama. Unfortunately, I must leave for work."
"Goodbye..." She managed to utter.
Martin paused in his retreat and then levelled his son with a serious look. "I expect you'll be uploading your files to the database sometime in the next twenty-four hours?" Naru nodded stiffly, and the older man nodded, pleased. "Good," He said, smiling mysteriously. "Although, it makes me wonder why you've taken so long to do it."
Naru listened to his shoes fade down the hallway, lost in thought, before he remembered the girl beside him. He turned, cold blue eyes falling on her frozen form.
"Mai, are you okay?"
"You wrote a book when you were sixteen." She whispered to the floor, working to comprehend the thought. "You... you—"
A new presence entered the room, looking far too chipper. "Good morning!" Yasu grinned at them.
"NARU COULD HAVE BEEN A PROFESSOR!" Mai suddenly burst out, unable to hold in the information any longer. She jumped up from her seat, looking at him with a distraught look. "H-HE GRADUATED FROM UNIVERSITY!"
"That's old news." Yasu dismissed her with a wave of his hand. "Luella showed us his graduation pictures yesterday. You could have at least smiled, you know?" He turned to their boss, who only glared in return. Yasu took a seat next to Mai and leaned over to whisper to her. "She promised to bust out his childhood album today."
"No." Naru said abruptly. His shoulders hiked up to his ears, his eyes ice cold with fury. "Absolutely not."
"What is absolutely not?" Luella asked as she entered the living room, looking as beautiful as she did yesterday. When neither of the three replied, with Mai still in a daze and the two men caught in a face off, she turned to her son and gently smacked his arm. "Oliver, do not glare at our guests like that."
Naru ran a hand across his face, looking haggard. "I can't be here for this." He muttered, then turned to leave. "I won't be back for a few hours. I'm going to the Lab."
Mai looked up, her attention caught. "The Lab?" She repeated. "What's the lab?"
He stopped in the doorway, glancing over his shoulder. "Pratt's Laboratory."
She stood immediately, not even stopping to ask for permission. "I'm coming."
Naru drove them down long winding roads until they reached the city, where he took sharp turns down streets without even looking at a map. He was familiar with the route, driving and stopping as if it were second nature to him.
When he pulled into the empty parking lot of a square brick building, it was only eight in the morning. Mai stepped out of the car before him, squinting up through the misty rain at the structure before her.
'Pratt's Laboratory' the words above the glass doors read.
"Let's go." Naru said, walking towards the entrance. She stumbled after him, wondering if they would even be able to get inside, considering it didn't even look open yet. Before she could question him, he pulled out a ring of keys from his pocket, unlocking the doors. "Welcome to Pratt's Laboratory."
Mai crept inside, her shoes tapping against the polished tile floors. She peered around the open space, taking in the eerie quietness. The front desk was empty, and none of the lights were on.
"Is it always this empty?" She questioned, glancing over her shoulder.
Naru shook off the water from his hair with his hand, glancing at her through his damp bangs. "No." Was all he answered, walking past her and the front desk.
She followed after him to the back area, down a long hallway with doors. Most of the rooms were offices, and a break room, but when they turned down another long hall at the end, she stopped abruptly to stare into a room with a long window.
The room was huge, with a row of desks and computers sitting in front of a machine that looked oddly familiar.
"Is that—"
Naru smirked. "Yes. That's the same machine I used to test if you were a psychic." He stopped in front of the locked door and pushed a key into the handle, opening it for her. "Want to see?"
Brushing past him in the doorway, she walked around the rows of desks, running her fingers over the machines. "They're not all the same."
"Neither are all psychics." He responded as he stopped behind her. "They test different things. Like this one—"
She wasn't sure how long they spent in that room, with her asking a million questions and him answering every single one patiently, but eventually they moved on to another room, where she only had more to wonder about.
She leaned that Pratt's Laboratory was where BSPR ran most of the behind-the-scenes operations. It was where the demonstration of Naru's famous PK video was filmed. It was where Madoka's field team worked when they weren't on a case. That very same field team that Naru supposedly helped run while she was in Japan, running SPR.
It was also where Naru and Gene worked, before Gene went off to Japan to research Japanese exorcisms in Shinmaguni, where he eventually disappeared.
"Gene mostly did fieldwork. Much like what you do." Naru explained, trailing close behind her as she walked down a row of bookcases in the small library. He watched her fingers run over the shelf, glancing back when his words paused. He already knew what her question was before she asked. "I was theorist."
"Hmm." She stopped abruptly, fingering the spine of a book. "That makes a lot of sense. Considering your major and all. So tell me..." The book slipped from the shelf, and he caught glimpse of the title, his eyes blinking in surprise to see that it was the one he wrote. "...did the renowned Dr. Oliver Davis ever do fieldwork too?"
He let out a small huff. "I thought you didn't hold grudges." He remarked, slightly amused.
"I don't. Unless one of my close friends hide that they graduated from university and wrote a book." She held it up for good measure as he walked past her to the window at the end of the row. "Seriously, I had no clue."
"I wasn't hiding it. You never asked." He peered down at the parking lot, watching as a car pulled in. "Play times over." He suddenly said. "Come."
Caught off guard with his sudden change of tone, Mai clumsily tucked the book underneath her arm and followed him. He led them out of the library, down another hallway, to a door with his name printed on it in big bold letters. She didn't fail to notice his title in front of his name with a roll of her eyes.
Before she could make another snarky comment, he yanked her into his office and shut the door behind them. "Jeez, what's the rush." She muttered, pulling her arm from his grip.
She turned around to observe the space, taking in the desk in front of the window and the bookshelves lining the wall. There was a leather loveseat off to the other side, with a coffee table in front of it, which she made a beeline for. Getting comfortable, she watched as he took off his suit jacket and took a seat behind his desk.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Looking over our files before I upload them to the database."
"Why?"
He glanced up at her. "If you're here, you're going to be quiet."
"Yes, doctor." She smirked when he let out an annoyed noise, but didn't respond.
Seeing as there was going to be no more talking, she busied herself with the book she grabbed from the library, deciding to see what all the fuss was about. "The Paranormal System." She read underneath her breath, opening it to the first chapter.
"According to the known sciences, there are explained and unexplained phenomena surrounding us. In this case, we want to understand that "unexplained phenomena" are "phenomena inferred by existing scientific systems to have no estimated possibility of being explained." For example, phenomena such as the creation process of the universe or the origin of elementary particles that have not been exhaustively elucidated by the known sciences are by no mistake unexplained phenomena, but it is expected that they will be explained eventually. These have been included among the scientific systems, and it would not be wrong to say that it is predicted they will be eventually explicated."
Mai blinked.
Wow. This was... intense.
For a moment, she considered just closing it and scrolling on her phone, but then she took a look at the focused expression on his face and realized they'd be there for a while. So she got comfortable, shamelessly kicking off her shoes and leaning back, pulling up google translate on her phone, and got to work trying to make sense of what Naru wrote.
The two of them didn't speak a word to each other for the next three hours, until they happened to catch each others eyes and immediately had the same thought—food.
"There's a lunch spot nearby that I frequented." Naru started to say as he pulled on his jacket, stopping when she stood. "No." He said. "You stay here."
Mai paused, then sat back down slowly. "Uh, okay?"
"Give me your phone." Without thinking she handed it over, and he raised an eyebrow at her recent translation. When he handed her phone back, there was a menu on the screen. "Text me what you want. I'll be back soon. Don't leave this room."
It didn't occur to Mai until much later why she couldn't leave.
After he returned with lunch, neither of them could focus. Apparently, in a very Naru like fashion, he failed to inform anyone that he was returning because his presence in the office seemed to be a shock. Through the frosted window pane on the door, people could be seen lingering outside the door, as if they wanted to knock but then lost their nerve and left.
Mai tried to ignore the sudden change of atmosphere in the office, but then she heard it.
Heels. Headed straight down the hall towards them. Click click click—then a curt knock at the door.
Naru stood, and instead of inviting them inside to talk, he stepped outside and closed the door behind him. Curious, Mai crept towards the door to try and see through the frosted glass, hoping to see who it was, and instead caught the tail end of their conversation.
"—I'm busy."
"Why didn't you tell anyone—" The women's words became too quiet and Mai leaned closer to hear, when suddenly her voice stopped. "Who are you with?"
Mai jolted, realizing they could probably see her shadow through the glass.
Naru seemed to wrap up the interaction and when he stepped back inside his office, he came to face her suspicious look.
"What?" He said.
Mai crossed her arms. "Are you hiding me?"
"Low profile, remember?"
"Ohhh, right." She chuckled, then smiled guiltily. "So, hypothetically, if I need to pee—"
"Can you hold it for fifteen minutes? They're going to be going on lunch soon. Then we can leave."
They managed to sneak out, coming across only a few wide eyed stares as they raced past open office doors, too fast for anyone to stop them along the way. With his book tucked underneath her arm, Mai pulled open the car door and paused, her head instinctively snapping up to one of the windows when she felt eyes on her. When she found nothing, she shrugged and closed the door after her.
"So," she started, turning to grin at her boss. "Think we'll make it back in time for the photo albums?"
Naru actually paused to consider it, then put the shift into drive. "Let's take the long way." He said decisively.
Unfortunately for him, they did in fact make it back in time for the viewing of his twelfth birthday, where he looked adorably murderous as he reluctantly blew out candles.
This is a re-uploadx2. For some reason the last update wouldn't show up, so i had to delete the chapter. Although it worked out for the best because there was some inconstancies story wise that I missed, so I had to fix them.
anyways! sorry it took so long for this update. My trusty laptop(the very same laptop i started writing Omen on) is giving up on me :( so i had to write this chapter on my phone, which was actually harder than i anticipated. I'll probably go back and edit this once my new laptop comes in but i hope you enjoyed this one! Lots of information about Naru and his life in England (and more to come)
i also just want to give credit to witchuntress on live journal. she translated Naru's article into English, which is where i got that little snippet from.