It had been two weeks since Mai had moved into Naru's apartment due to an accident on their last case which landed her in the hospital. She was getting back into her normal routine after a case which consisted of going to high school and heading to the office afterwards. It seemed kind of ironic that the apartment had only be a 10 minute walk from Mai's school, which made mornings a little bit easier for her. However after school was a lot more than Mai could handle, Naru had made it a point to come after school everyday to pick the girl up saying that he didn't trust her to get herself to the office on time.
After she had made several attempts to ignore him and walk to the train station he still did not let up on his efforts. Eventually Mai gave up knowing that she was just fighting a losing battle. It was October now and the autumn weather was finally starting to roll around. The air was starting to feel colder and the leaves were beginning to change colors. Just like usual Naru was waiting for Mai outside the front of her school so they could head up to the office.
She opened the door to the passenger side of the car, placed her bag on the floor, and closed the door. Mai was glad that today was a Friday, since her school knew that SPR became her permanent job they dismissed her from having to attend Saturday classes so she can work.
"Hey Naru would you be able to help me with something," Mai asked her boss.
He glanced over towards her waiting for her to continue speaking as he kept his focus on the road.
"I have a history test coming up on Monday and I was wondering if you could quiz me to see if I was ready," she told him nervously.
"If you have been studying for the test like you should be then I don't see why would be anything less than prepared," he responded still facing forward.
"I have been studying for your information. It's just that this would give me an opportunity to see what areas I need to focus more on. It's fine if you don't want to I just figured I would ask," Mai said turning her attention towards the window.
She heard Naru sigh then say "Fine I'll help you".
They arrived to the office in 30 minutes and when she walked in it was empty, except for the fact that Lin was more than likely in his office. Mai missed having Madoka in the office especially since she had been there everyday for the past 2 years. But once Naru and Lin had returned she decided to head back to the main SPR branch since she had a lot of work to get back to. Mai hung her bag on the coat rack and went straight to the kitchen to start making tea for everyone.
"Mai tea, and bring it to my office once you finish," Naru said retreating to the cave he calls his office.
"Already on it boss," the girl said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Once she had prepared the three cups she placed them on a tray and went to deliver them to their prospective person. She stopped by Lin's office first who grabbed his cup graciously and closed the door returning back to whatever task he was doing. Next Naru's office, she knocked and waited for permission to enter. Upon gaining entrance she placed the cup on his desk and dismissed myself. Mai claimed the last cup for herself and took it to her designated office space.
She saw the article that Naru had given to her earlier in the week sitting in the middle of her desk. She knew she should keep reading and taking notes but her mind felt too distracted to focus on anything at the moment. Her mind kept going back to the dream she had the night before, it was more of a nightmare than it was a dream. The dream was exactly how they used to be before she met Naru and knew that ghosts and psychic abilities existed.
The whole team was on a case together and it seemed like we were in the middle of trying to close the case. Everyone was gathered in the center of a large room. Mai couldn't make out any details of what the room looked like or what was in it, everything was dark and blurry except for the people in the dream. She could see everyone was panting heavily, somehow she knew they had spent an extensive amount of time fending off a spiritual presence.
The harder they were fighting against it the harder it attacked causing the team to stay on the defensive. Ayako, Monk, and John formed the front lines, Masako and Lin were in the middle, which left Naru, Mai, and Yasu in the back. The three in the front were taking the brute force of everything, but whenever this force felt like it was mischievous enough it would try and attack from behind, but Mai was able to fend them off. She was amazed to see how much her spiritual power had grown by this point, normally she would feel exhausted but she hardly felt anything.
"There has to be something we can do if we don't stop this we aren't going to be able to perform the exorcism," Mai yelled taking note that everyone wasn't going to be able to hold out much longer.
If everyone became too exhausted then Naru might resort to using his PK again and Mai wasn't sure if his body would survive again from using that much spiritual force. Then an idea popped into her head, she remembered reading an article that Naru had given her as a part of her weekly lessons. It talked about creating a spiritual shield of sorts, the steps on how to do it, and what the barrier can do based on different personal accounts.
If she was able to pull this off then she could hopefully create a barrier large enough to protect everyone so they could get some of their strength back.
"You guys I have an idea but I need someone to cover for me back here," Mai spoke out loud.
"What do you plan on doing," Naru asked confused.
"Just trust me this may be our only option," the girl looked at her boss full of determination.
"Ms. Matsuzaki fall back and support Mai back here. Mai you better know what you are doing," he looked at her as if to say this was her last chance to back out now.
"Don't worry Naru I believe this will work," she said to him.
Mai fell onto her knees and clasped her hands together in the hopes of focusing all of her energy into this task. All she had to do was imagine a space surrounded her with a clear film and then expand it until everyone else was covered. She could feel a shift in the energy around her and looked up I could see a hazy film in front of her and all the noise had stopped and everything was silent now. Things were working out so far, now all the brunette had to do was to give protection to everyone else she had to imagine the space expanding beyond her.
Since this was a technique she had never tried before she was having a hard time applying the techniques the article had mentioned. Time was running out if she couldn't get this to work soon then everyone was going to be in danger. The ground suddenly started shaking underneath them and caused me to lose a bit of concentration. The barrier started to crack and she had to spend time repairing it before trying to expand it more.
Something didn't feel right to the girl her instincts were screaming danger and her stomach was turning in knots. Whatever force was attacking them had suddenly stopped causing everyone to go on high alert. A voice in Mai's head kept telling her to stop focusing on the barrier and to focus on what was going on behind her. When she turned around she could see the ground opening up behind Yasu.
"Yasu look out behind you," she yelled but it was too late for him.
A sharp piece of rock had shot up from the ground and impaled Yasu through his stomach. He fell to the ground and blood started to pool around him. Ayako immediately stopped her chanting to go and assist the young man.
"Mai concentrate on whatever it is you are trying to do I'll take care of him," Ayako yelled at her.
At this point Mai had woken up from her dream feeling panicked and she was breathing heavily. Tears had started cascading down her face and it took her a bit to realize that it was just a dream and not one of her visions. Luckily for her it was almost time for her to get ready for school so she didn't have to worry about trying to fall back asleep again. But the image of seeing Yasu being stabbed like that stayed in her head all day. She did her best to act like she wasn't distracted and clearly it must have worked if Naru didn't even notice anything.
A knock came from Mai's office door and she turned to see Naru standing in the doorway.
"Oh hi Naru, did you need more tea," the assistant asked.
"I came to see if you finished reading that article I gave you earlier this week," the boy told her.
"No not yet I just have a couple more paragraphs to read and make notes about," the girl replied knowing she was about to get an earful.
"Have it done by tomorrow," Naru said sounding annoyed.
"How am I supposed to do that and study for my history test," the girl replied back.
"Then I suggest you hurry up and finish so you can move on to your next task," he stated and Mai could hear that high and mighty tone in his voice.
"Can't you just let up a little bit please," Mai said practically begging him.
"Absolutely not if you are serious about controlling your powers then this material is important for you to know. Whether the information pertains to you or not these are things you have to know," Naru told the girl.
"I am serious about this I want to understand my abilities, why I have them, and what purpose they serve," Mai looked straight into Naru's eyes feeling the desire burn inside of her.
"Good then show me," and he left Mai alone in her office.
Naru was right if she was serious about continuing her training and expanding her knowledge then she was going to have to take her studies a little more seriously. Mai decided to use this time to practice the deep breathing and meditation techniques that Naru had showed her. She sat on the floor with her legs crossed and started with the deep breathing.
'I'll give myself 5 minutes and then I'll get back to work,' she told herself.
Once the time was up she sat at her desk again and finished reading the article. Naru came back to Mai's office space at around 6:30pm so they could head back to the apartment. Lin had stayed behind in the office to finish a few tasks, but Mai just assumed he wanted to be alone so he could video chat with Madoka. There were several occasions when Mai was leaving for the day that she heard the voice of the pink haired woman coming from Lin's office. She couldn't help but smile thinking about their relationship.
Once the duo arrived at home Mai took her belongings to her room and went back to the kitchen to start making dinner. Naru was already planted on his spot on the couch reading his book. Mai decided on chicken cutlets with teriyaki sauce and white rice. She figured this was the better option since it wouldn't take too much time to prepare.
"Did you finish reading the article like I told you," Naru asked from the living room.
"Yes professor I did actually. Even though you said I had until tomorrow to finish it," she replied a bit annoyed.
"We'll see about that," the boss responded with a condescending tone.
'I'll show him he probably thinks I just skimmed the last bit but I'll prove him wrong," the girl thought.
Mai had finished frying the last piece of chicken and moved it over to the cutting board to slice it into strips. As soon as she was done cutting the chicken the rice cooker had beeped signaling that the rice was also done.
Mai grabbed two bowls from the cabinet and two sets of chopsticks from the drawer. She scooped the rice into the bowls and carefully placed the chicken strips on top which were then drizzled with the teriyaki sauce. By the time Mai was taking the bowls to the table Naru had already seated himself. Mai handed him his share and placed hers in front of her seat and went back in the kitchen to prepare tea before Naru decided to ask for some.
Just as the water had finished boiling Naru had called over to her "Mai tea".
"Yeah yeah I'm already on it, it will be done right now," she answered rolling her eyes.
She was glad she decided to make the tea instead of waiting, had she decided to wait Mai would have felt more irritated than she did at the moment. Naru was given his tea and Mai sat down and began eating her food. At this time Naru decided it would be a good idea to start asking her questions about the article. He definitely didn't hold back on the questions, he even changed some of the wording from the text to see if she would catch on to his little trick.
"Well it seems that you are smarter than we thought," Naru said smirking after Mai answered the last question.
"I told you I read everything at least give me some credit," Mai stuck her tongue out at her boss.
Once they had both finished their meals Mai took their dishes to the sink and poured Naru a new cup of tea, thankfully the water was still warm. She brought him the new cup and took the empty one to the sink with the rest of the dirty dishes.
'Alright dishes first, then the counters and table, and then I can study for my history test a little before bed,' the girl planned out in her head.
Suddenly Naru came up behind the girl and took the sponge out of her hand.
"Naru what are you doing I have to wash the dishes," Mai looked at him confused.
"You cooked so I will clean, that way it's fair and equal work," he said with a very neutral expression on his face.
It was very weird to see Naru voluntarily offer to wash the dishes. Ever since Mai had started living with him, he had started doing things on his own only after she had started scolding or yelled at him.
"Okay fine Naru I won't fight you on this, but I'm at least going to help you wipe down the counters and table," Mai said and grabbed a cleaning rag.
While Naru washed the dishes Mai cleaned the counters and the table making sure there was nothing left over from their dinner. Mai decided to take a shower in the bathroom that had been attached to her room, before she went to study for her exam on Monday. Once she was finished she put on an oversized t-shirt and black and white plaid pajama pants. She sat herself at her desk and grabbed her notes.
They had to memorize all 50 of the United States, their capitals, and what year they became states. She had all the information that she needed written down she just needed to find a way to memorize it all. Did she try to remember everything in order by year, or go alphabetically by state or by capital?
While she did her best to study she could feel her body slowly relaxing and her eyes were closing. Mai realized that showering first may not have been the best idea since the warmth from the water was also causing her body to relax.
"No I have to stay up and study I can't fall asleep yet," she told herself as she smacked her cheeks.
As hard as she tried she just couldn't find a way to keep herself awake. Before she knew it she fell asleep on her desk, and just like the days before she had the same dream.
Again she was back in that same open space with everyone from SPR. Before Mai had never been able to figure out where they were except for the fact that it was a large room. This time she could make out four separate hallways leading to unknown places. On each of the four walls she could see different paintings on them. Everyone was in the same order like before Ayako, Monk and John in the front, Lin and Masako holding up the middle, which left Mai with Naru and Yasu holding up the rear.
She knew what she had to do she had to start working on the barrier, but her body would not move all she was doing was performing the warding magic to protect them from any oncoming attacks from behind. Like before Mai could see all the exhaustion from her teammates and see them visibly sweating as they did their best to protect each other. She could feel the panic rising inside of her knowing that if she didn't try and act soon they were all going to be in grave danger. Mai felt a presence behind her and saw a spirit fast approaching, using the nine cuts she sent the spirit back to the realm it came from.
Again the girl remembered reading an article that she had read as a part of Naru's lessons, it was about creating a spiritual barrier. She once more voiced her opinion knowing they had run out of options so there was no room for objections. Everyone agreed with her idea, Ayako moved back in order to take over for Mai and left the two boys in front of her. Mai kneeled on the floor concentrating hoping this time she would be faster in creating the barrier to prevent Yasu from being injured like before.
The barrier had surrounded her and she felt nothing but peace and calm, she couldn't even hear any of the outside noise.
'Please please let this work. Please give me the strength to pull this off and protect everyone," she silently prayed to herself.
The amount of anxiety that she had been feeling before had doubled and was turning her stomach in knots, she almost thought she was going to throw up. Her instincts were screaming danger at her but she didn't want to lose her concentration.
The ground began to shake underneath everyone and this caused Mai to lose her balance and concentration. The barrier started forming cracks and Mai repositioned herself and started working on fixing the cracks. The panic was building up more and more knowing she was not moving fast enough to prevent the danger that was to come. All of a sudden the noise stopped simultaneously with the attacks and everyone was on edge not knowing what was going to happen. Mai knew what was going to happen now if she decided to turn around. But even so, knowing what was going to happen didn't stop her from turning her head to look.
"Yasu look out behind you," she yelled but still she could not prevent this tragedy.
Yasu collapsed immediately to the floor with blood pooling out of the wound and all around him. Ayako stopped her chants and went to attend to him.
"Mai concentrate on whatever it is you are doing I'll take care of him," Ayako yelled to the girl.
By this point in the dream Mai would usually wake up shaking and gripping her sheets tightly, however that was not the case this time.
In order to take over for Ayako, Masako stepped towards the back row which left Lin alone in the middle. Even though Mai was visibly shaking over what she had just witnessed she went back to focusing on creating the barrier before anyone else got hurt. Ayako having very limited supplies on her ripped Yasu's shirt open and ripped it in half. One half was placed on his back and the other she took and pressed down on the front to try and stop as much of the bleeding as possible. She knew this wasn't a permanent solution seeing how the shirt was already beginning to soak up all the blood.
Now since Mai had completely stopped focusing on making the barrier when she tried to warn Yasu, all her progress was gone and she had to start the process all over again. Again she kneeled down and clasped her hands together focusing on creating a space large enough to cover every one of them and keep them safe until they could come up with a new plan.
Mai once more surrounded herself with the transparent space and felt the same feeling as before. After about a minute she was able expand it enough to where her and Masako were both covered now.
"You're doing good Mai keep going," Masako praised her.
She willed the barrier to expand faster to protect everyone before they suffered like Yasu. Again she felt panic and anxiety rise inside of her and she knew someone was in trouble again. She looked at those in front of her and didn't notice anything unusual in the area around them or along the ground. Masako was safe with her inside of the barrier and just recently she was able to expand it to include Naru inside.
All that was left was Ayako and Yasu, Yasu was out of the question because the spirit had already taken care of him. Mai turned her head again causing her to lose concentration once more and the barrier shattered. The spirit used the fact that Ayako was administering emergency aid and was distracted from her surroundings to attack her next. The priestess was sent flying back and hit the right wall with a tremendous amount of force that everyone heard the sound of cracking.
Mai got up and was starting to run to the red haired woman when suddenly someone grabbed her wrist stopping her.
"Don't go anywhere you need to get back to making the barrier," it was Naru who stopped her.
"But Naru I have to get Ayako she is hurt badly," Mai was crying and struggling against Naru's grip.
"Mai I said do not move. If something happens to you then it's all over for the rest of us," Naru said trying to reason with the logical part of the girl.
He could see that considering the situation they were in that any choice the girl was going to make moving forward was solely going to be based on emotion. While at times he valued the girl's emotional input from time to time on a case, today was not the day for that not when all their lives could be at risk due to one misstep. Mai could only nod as she continued crying knowing her boss was right.
"Monk get Ms. Matsuzaki and bring her back over her," Naru commanded.
Monk ran as fast as he could to retrieve Ayako and moved her back closer to the group. Upon inspection Monk could see she had a serious gash on her head, but who knows what kind of internal injuries she had.
"Monk is she…," Mai couldn't finish her sentence.
She didn't want to say the word, she'd had enough loved ones taken away from her for a lifetime.
"She's okay for now but hurry Mai the sooner you create the barrier the sooner we are safe and can end things and get them the help they need," Monk said pleading.
Mai knew she had to hurry if not she and everyone else could be seriously injured or worse dead. She started her ritual all over again kneeling on the floor and hands clasped together as if in prayer. She really wanted this to work, if she failed to protect anyone else she didn't know if she could continue on.
Mai shot up gasping hard, her body and brain were trying to adjust themselves from her dreamworld. The girl was still sitting at her desk and luckily she hadn't fallen out of her chair at some point. She ran a shaky hand through her hair and she could feel sweat dripping down her face. Mai wasn't sure what was happening, this dreams was unlike any she had ever had before. She had never had the same dream twice before, not only that but this time it had continued showing her more. Whether or not this dream was a warning everything about it terrified her.
The girl looked toward her nightstand where her clock rested which read 3:30am. She knew she would not be going back to sleep for the rest of the night, so she got up and went to the kitchen to make herself something to try and calm her nerves. She filled up the kettle with more water and placed it on the stove to boil. She couldn't shake the vision of Yasu and ayako's bodies from her head.
Now Naru himself had woken up from his slumber whether it was sheer coincidence or a little bit of manipulation on his twin's part was a mystery. He could hear noise coming from the kitchen and could only assume it was coming from his female assistant. He was curious as to what had woken her up so early in the morning and why she was making so much noise so early.
Mai was standing in the kitchen with her back towards him. Clearly she hadn't noticed his presence because she didn't turn around to look at him. he walked closer to her and noticed that she was gripping the counter hard enough to turn her knuckles white.
His hand rested upon her shoulder and he spoke "Mai what are you doing awake so early".
The girl nearly jumped out of her skin suddenly hearing a voice right behind her.
"Naru what did I say about sneaking up on me you almost scared me to death," Mai said letting out a shaky breath.
"Well who else would you expect to be in the apartment besides me," Naru asked narrowing his eyes.
"That's not the point you can't just go around sneaking up behind people like that especially with no warning," she told him.
"I did place my hand on your shoulder did I not that should have been warning enough," he stated.
"You know Naru you can be a real…," and she was interrupted by the whistle of the kettle.
She grabbed two cups one for herself and one for her boss. Once she had poured the tea into the cups she handed one over to him. He could see she had been crying before he walked into the kitchen. Her eyes were red and swollen and she had tear stains on her cheeks. Mai took a sip of her tea and let the warmth spread out through her entire body. She felt slightly better but she still couldn't forget her dream.
"So Naru what are you doing up so early," Mai asked her boss.
"I could be asking you the same thing since all the noise you were making it what woke me up," he replied taking a sip of tea.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you. I was just having trouble sleeping so I figured I could make myself something to drink to help me relax," Mai apologized.
"It wasn't a dream was it," Naru questioned.
Even though Naru knew she never dreamt or had vision about anything that wasn't pertaining to a case, he also knew that he powers were beginning to expand and develop more. If she had a dream about anything of significance then he wanted to be the first to know about it.
"It wasn't like one of those dreams, this seemed more like a regular nightmare. I'm not really sure how to explain it," Mai replied.
"What was the dream about," Naru asked probing for more information.
"I really don't feel like talking about it right now, everything about that dream was just horrible and I would rather nor relive every detail," Mai's tone softened and her voice was almost a whisper at the thought of having to relive the dream.
Again Mai sipped on her tea trying to focus on something other than the dream.
"Hey Naru I know you would rather sleep but do you think you can quiz me for my test please," Mai asked hoping he would help distract her.
"So what is it that they are testing you on," Naru asked knowing she wasn't going to talk until she was ready.
"I need to know the name of all the United States their capitals, and what year they became states," Mai replied as she walked to the living room and grabbed her flashcards from her school bag.
Naru followed her and the duo took a seat on Naru's L-shaped grey sofa. Mai handed over her flashcards to Naru and waited for her to start asking him questions
N: Alabama's capital and year of statehood
M: Montgomery is the capital and the year was 1819
N: This state's capital is Carson City
M: Nevada and it became a state in the year 1864
N: Became a state in the year 1859
M: Oregon and the capital is Salem
This continued on for about 30 minutes. Naru would put the cards that Mai had a hard time remembering or got incorrectly off to the side to go over again later.
"What state officially became a state in 1787," Naru asked.
Mai stayed silent not naming the state or it's capital. Naru waited a minute before he repeated his question again, Mai still did not reply.
"You have to at least attempt to answer otherwise it will be hard to distinguish what you are struggling with, Naru stated with a hint of annoyance.
When Mai still didn't answer him Naru looked up from the flashcards and noticed Mai had fallen asleep on the couch. Now Naru had two options he could either leave the girl on the couch or he could carry her back to her bed. He was favoring the former option in order to teach her a lesson for falling asleep while studying, but he could already hear her complaining once she'd woken up and realized where she fell asleep. Naru sighed and picked up the assistant deciding to just take her back to her room. As he carried her he realized that she wasn't all that heavy. The boy made it to her room and placed her in the bed and covered her with her blanket.
'Even in her normal sleep she hardly notices sounds and movement,' Naru thought as she never stirred the entire time from her sleep.
As Naru was walking to exit Mai's room he heard a small voice from behind him "Goodnight Naru".
Naru stopped and the smallest hint of a smile formed on his face, so small that only a select few would notice the change in his facial features.
"Goodnight Mai".
A/N: Thank you all again for reading my story. I really appreciate each and every one of you that has been following thus far. Please continue to support me and my story as I do my best to update for you guys. Please like, favorite, and comment as always and I will be here next time. Also I do not own Ghost Hunt or its characters, the only things I own are the plot and ideas in this fanfiction. Byeeeeeeeeeee~