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Chapter Text

I

Mai Taniyama brushed a lock of her short brown hair back from her face as she picked up a map that Naru, her boss, had left out on the counter. A picture of two identical boys with black hair and handsome faces slipped out from between the folds of the map. Mai bent down to pick it up off the ground. Shock raced through her and tears gathered in her eyes as the figures in the photograph registered. For all that she was young and Naru liked to call her an idiot she really truly wasn't stupid.

Side by side, with the knowledge that there were two of them, Mai knew that the kind boy she communicated with in her dreams wasn’t Naru at all, but the other boy in the picture. The boy whose eyes were softer and whose smile came easier than a smile on Naru's face any day. Dread pressed down on her with a nearly unbearable weight and she knew that if this boy was the one in her dreams and he that he wasn't not Naru, then it made more sense that the other boy was dead.

Fresh tears spilled onto her cheeks as she knelt over the picture. No wonder Naru always wore black, he must be in so much pain she thought with despair. Her heart ached for the two brothers.

Naru walked into the office and froze in the doorway. Mai was kneeling over the picture. "Where did you get that?" he ground out, desperately trying to keep himself under control. Just because she saw his picture didn’t mean that she knew anything. No one was supposed to know, except for Lin and he hadn't even informed Lin of all the details. Naru didn't want anyone to know. Aside from the fact that was supposed to be a secret, if other people knew then it was real and he could no longer pretend that his reflection in the mirror was his twin if he just looked long enough.

She didn’t lift her head and Naru was beginning to become suspicious.

"You left it out," she finally answered, but he could hear that there was something wrong with her voice. It sounded nasally. He should never have left that picture out, but Mai has always had a habit of coming in late and he had thought he had time. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He should know better by now that when it comes to the important things in his life he always shows up too late.

He knelt down next to her and reached for the photograph. She tightened her fingers around the edge and met his distressed eyes. He could see her tear-stained cheeks and the water that was still gathered on her lashes now. He was so distracted by the sight that it took him a minute to realize that Mai had asked him a question.

"What?" he asked, a furrow developing in between his brows.

"I said, were you ever going to tell any of us?" she asked. Her face was a mixture of sorrow and something that he didn’t have the ability to decipher.

"That I have a brother. Why would I?" he mustered his coldest, most impersonal tone, but he knew it was futile even before he finished speaking. It didn’t deter Mai at all, but few things ever had once she set her mind to it.

"Oh Naru," she cried. The tears spilled faster down her cheeks and he still had no idea why. There was no way she could know. He and Lin had been careful to never give any clues away and she was Mai- young, clueless, temperamental, sweet Mai. Psychometry wasn’t one of her gifts so there was absolutely no way she could know. The only thing he could think of was that she was upset that he didn't share parts of his life with her because they were "friends".

"I wish you would have told me. What's his name?" she asked softly, staring intently down at the picture.

He was getting tired of this and he didn’t want to talk with anyone about this, not even Mai. He just didn’t feel ready. "Why does it even matter?" he asked angrily. He can't help but think that he may never be ready to share this with anyone.

His gaze swept back over her face and suddenly he was able to read something else on her face. It looked strangely like defeat to him and he didn’t like the look of it on her face. He has never liked seeing Mai sad or scared and he's quickly realizing that he doesn’t like this look on her face either, especially since he was the one that put it there.

"Please?" Her voice is almost a whisper at this point.

He sighed and he could feel the grief crash through and engulf him. “Eugene. His name is Eugene or Gene for short."

"Eugene," she tested out. The name was foreign on her tongue and was hard for her to emphasize correctly. She had trouble getting the syllables and her mouth to cooperate so she shortened the name like Naru had. "Gene.”

"Why does it even matter to you Taniyama?" The grief threatened to overwhelm him. He resented that she wouldn’t let this go. It was hard for him to even hear his brother's name spoken out loud and he didn’t think he could bear to hear it out loud again anytime soon.

Mai visibly deflated and a few more tears escaped her eyes. "Because I've been seeing him in my dreams ever since I met you. He's been helping me with my dreams, but I didn't know you had a twin, so I thought it was you or that I was crazy. I can tell though that it's been him. That it's been Gene this whole time," she said as she lightly traced two fingers over his twin's face.

Ice froze the blood in his veins and he would swear that his heart stopped altogether. Whatever he had been expecting Mai to say, well it wasn't that. He clenched down the nausea that tried to force its way up his throat. He would never have dreamed of Mai saying that. He wanted to vomit. He's been so close this whole time. He could have put his brother to rest months ago. He grabbed her upper arms frantically and a ragged breath escaped from his body. "Mai, what did you say? Never mind, I heard you the first time. Does he talk to you?" he asked, desperation creeping into his voice.

She let out a small wounded cry, "Yes. All the time on cases. He's always helped me. He's dead, isn't he?"

It was his turn to swallow back tears. It was like a slap to hear someone else say it. Martin and Luella, his adoptive parents, never said it aloud either. The corners of his mouth turned down into that displeased look he always wore around her whenever she had annoyed him. "He is. I let him come to Japan alone. Something terrible happened and please Mai has he ever said where he is?"

Mai thought that perhaps she had never really understood Naru at all and that maybe the expression he always wore was less annoyance with her and more grief that he can't stop from spilling out. It was the please that got her. Naru never said please. Like a literal pull, she could feel the tug on her heartstrings as she witnessed the most unguarded look she had ever seen on his face.

She shook her head no.

"But I can ask,” she offered.

"Mai - he didn't die peacefully," he warned lowly.

He couldn’t bring himself to say that she didn’t have to, but he wanted to give her an out. On the last case, in the bloody labyrinth, she had experienced a death vision and he knew that it had badly frightened her. When he closed his eyes, he could still clearly see the terror reflected in her wide eyes from that day. She was always feeling something. She frequently spilled her feelings out all over everything she came in contact with, but he had never seen her so shaken up before that case.

She grasped his hands and met his deep blue eyes with a soft look. She was projecting earnestness so strongly that he could feel it through their clasped hands even without consciously calling on his psychometry. "It's okay. I still want to try." The to “help you” went unspoken but he knew that's what she meant.

He pulled her up by their still connected hands and helped her over to the client couch. He moved a decorative pillow under her head as she laid down.

"Will you stay?" she whispered.

He couldn’t bring himself to speak, but his nod of agreement was the last thing Mai saw as her eyes fluttered shut. Her hand tightened on the picture of the two boys one last time and then she felt herself drift away.

Suddenly, the inky blackness behind her eyelids turned into a roadway. Night covered the land in dense shadows and the road looked dark and wet in the dim light provided by the waning crescent moon. Mai looked up and in slow motion, she could see the headlights of a red car speed down the hill and the driver lose control on a slick patch of the road. She couldn’t move out of the way in time. Her eyes widened and her body tensed instinctively. She felt the impact as the car hit her straight on and then everything sped up as she felt her body fly. The sound of her bones crunching as she hits the ground is a sensation that she both hears and feels. Immense pain flared through her body and she couldn’t move from the shock. There was something wrong with her ribs and her bones are definitely broken. She gasped out a strangled breath and the pain makes her hesitate to take another. She heard the car stop and the driver rushed over to where she was laid out. Tilting her head was an impossible task but she could tell by the clipping sound of heels and bare legs that the driver was a woman.

Mai tried to gasp out a help or please or anything at all, but she couldn’t get any noise out. She heard, more than saw the woman bolt back to her car and Mai despaired that the woman had left her. She heard the car squeal and confusingly she watched the taillights rush toward her. She cried out as her vision whited out and it was only after it happened that Mai comprehends that the woman had run her over a second time. She was in so much pain that she couldn’t move or speak. She wavered in and out of consciousness, but every shallow puff of breath brought debilitating agony.

Please, someone, help me.

She felt the soft fabric of a blanket wrapped around her broken body. It was such a strong contrast that it stuck in her mind. She's aware of being hefted up and tossed onto a surface. There's so much pain. It was the familiar sound of a trunk closing that alerted her that she's been tossed like luggage into the car trunk.

Please find me.

I don't want to die.

Mai knew that she couldn’t have been in the trunk of the car for very long, but an eternity seemed to pass by. She had no way of judging and the lost time between blackouts could very well be seconds or hours. She wanted to bang on the car, she wanted to make noise, but she was unable to move or make a sound through the pain. Panic clogged her throat as the car stopped and Mai can't help but dread whatever will happen next.

Help! Please! I don't want to die.

Mai blacked out from the pain and fear as she was lifted out of the trunk. As her body hit water she jolted awake and she reflexively took a deep breath. Cold water filled her mouth. Her throat spasmed in response to the invading fluid and more water filled her lungs. She was too weak to swim and she was only had the barest bit of consciousness. She couldn’t breathe and she sunk further into the dark depths. It was impossible to move. Her throat and chest ached fiercely., but she couldn’t determine if the burning in her chest was from the lack of oxygen or the impact of the car earlier.

It hurts. I'm scared. Someone, please find me.

The water was dark already, but even darker was the blackness that crept into the corners of her vision. Once the creeping darkness stole everything then there was no more pain or fear. There was nothing at all.

Suddenly, Mai was back in her own body on the shore of the lake that she was sure Gene's body had been thrown into. The water looked deceptively peaceful lapping in little waves at the shoreline but she shivered, still acutely able to feel the icy coldness of the water dragging her down.

"I never wanted you to see that,” Eugene, the boy she saw in her dreams, said. He looked pale and wrung out even as a spirit. His face was the unhappiest she'd seen it in her dreamscape.

"Eugene," she hiccupped. The tears came faster now. "I'm so sorry. But why did you let me think you were Naru this whole time?"

His shoulders slumped and he kicked a rock into the water as he sighed out. "I was trying to reach my brother, but I never could reach him, only you. It's hard for me to begin the connection if there's no immediate danger though. This is the first time you've reached for me instead of the other way around and the connection is much stronger and clearer. I think it's easier for you to contact me than it is for me to contact you, especially since you know my name now. Inevitably, every time I could reach you everyone was always in danger and I didn't have long."

Mai cocked her head to the side and asked, "What do you mean about it being easier to contact you with your name?"

"Names have power, particularly to spirits. Always remember that Mai Taniyama," he said and met her gaze dead-on.

A chill ran down her spine as if someone had walked over her grave and she nodded in understanding. "Do you know where your body is?"

A shadow passed over his face and his lips turned down. The expression made him look even more like Naru, except that it looked wrong on his face. "In Fureai Damn Lake."

"I need to go soon. Is there anything else you would like me to tell Naru?" Mai asked more to change the subject than anything else. She didn’t like to see him in pain. He had always been so gentle to her and she can't stand that someone had hurt him so badly and thrown him away.

His gaze softened and Mai couldn’t help but contrast how different he looked from Naru with a more natural expression on his face. Even though they are twins, Mai didn’t understand how she had ever mistook them for the same person. It's easy to tell them apart if you knew to look at their eyes and mouths. "Tell Oliver- Tell Noll I said to stop being an idiot scientist and live a little more and that I will always love him."

Mai nodded and pinched her lips together so she didn’t let out the sob that was crawling up her throat. He spoke again, "And Mai- When Noll finds me I don't know that I'll ever see you again, so in case I never get to say it again, thank you."

Her heart stopped beating for a minute and it felt as though someone had torn the organ out of her chest. She felt it like a physical blow. "Because you will have passed on?" she questioned.

"Yes," Gene said simply.

She pressed her eyes closed for a second and opened them as she spoke, "Then I hope you find peace."

He smiled gently at her as he was bathed in a soft glow. He took her hands in his and squeezes gently. "Thank you, Mai. It's time to get up now.”

Naru retrieved a blanket for Mai and settled in next to the couch. His eyes traced the tracks of the fat tears that rolled down her cheeks while she slept. At least he could be sure that she was seeing something, although if it pertained to his missing brother or not remained to be seen. He wrung his hands in his lap. He wanted to touch her or wipe away the tears, but he was afraid that if he touched her it would break the spell. He didn’t know how long he sat there waiting for her to wake up, but it simultaneously seemed like forever and like no time had passed at all.

Mai's eyes flew open and she choked as she hugged her arms around her ribs. Her throat burned and her ribs ached fiercely. After she finished coughing and heaving, she practically launched her body onto Naru's. She tried to talk, but Naru couldn’t understand what she was trying to say through the sobs wracking her slight frame.

Naru stiffened when she initially threw herself into his lap, but as the surprise wore off, he released the tension in his frame while she clung to him. He hesitantly brought his arms around her and pressed her more firmly into him. Finally, he could make out the words she had been saying and he almost wished he couldn't because she was repeating, "I saw it."

His fingers tightened on her back as he closed his eyes to collect himself and fought back the nauseous feeling in his stomach. He should never have risked that she would watch that. He can still see the accident clearly in his mind. Death visions are difficult even if you don't know the victim, but to experience someone's death that you know and care about was excruciating. He waited until her sobs lessened in intensity and the breaths on his neck slowed down to ask, "Mai did you talk to him? To Eugene?"

Mai nodded her head in the hollow of his neck. Her throat was so sore, but she let out a single hiccup before beginning to speak, "Fureai Damn Lake. He says to tell you to stop being an idiot scientist and live a little more and that he will always love you."

He fell back into the chair and bowed his head, eyes squeezed firmly closed. When he opened his eyes he gently helped Mai back on to the couch. She sat with her head on her knees and her arms wrapped tightly around her while Noll made tea.

He crouched down and handed her a cup of the fresh tea. Steam rose up from the cup as she sipped it. "I've got to contact Lin now. When we find Gene I'm going to shut down the office and return to England, so you need to begin searching for another job. I'm leaving as soon as Lin gets here so bring all your stuff home with you tonight."

"Kaz-" she started to speak and then abruptly closed her mouth. Shibuya Kazuya couldn't possibly be his real name and Gene had called him Oliver in her vision.

"Oliver," she said and she watched him jump at the sound of his name from her lips. "I want to go with you to find him. I'd like to pay my respects, please. He's probably saved my life as many times as you have," she said with a wry self-deprecating grin.

Oliver sighed. "That's because you can't stay out of trouble, idiot. I'm calling Lin now. Get your bag ready."

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize I don't own :(

III

Oliver was dumbfounded, which was not a state he preferred, nor found himself in very often. While Gene's corpse hadn't looked as terrible as he'd initially expected after the flash of light Gene's body looked- well it looked like it had never been dead in the first place. Which was impossible. Even more improbable was that the psychic connection he had been missing with his brother for a year snapped back into place. The reconnection flashed through him like lightning and he jerked back from the shock. He hadn't even realized how empty he had felt without that link until it had been reconnected. He felt more connected and brimming with energy than he ever remembered from before.

His brother, or whatever was inhabiting his brother's corpse, rolled to its side and vomited up lake water. He couldn't help but stare as the figure heaved and he felt the warmth of Mai at his back as she peeked around his shoulder. He saw Lin come up beside him in his peripheral, but even Lin looked hesitant and astounded by the sight.

"Mai, concentrate and tell me if you can sense a spirit or feel that we are in any danger," Oliver asked quietly.

She wasn't very good at doing this while she was awake and it occurred to her that now that she didn't have anyone to rely on, she would have to practice this by herself, so she could at least attempt to stay out of trouble. Mai squeezed her eyes closed tightly and focused intently on what she was thinking and feeling with her intuition. She was shocked, confused, and exhausted, but under those feelings she couldn't sense a spirit or anything immediately dangerous in the area.

"No, I don't sense anything," she said just as quietly as Oliver had been.

Oliver didn't relax at all at her answer and she could feel the air temperature drop and a strange energy rise around him. "Okay then. Lin, I'm going to need you to confuse the dive team. I don't care if make them forget this whole day, but they must not remember finding a body," he ordered. Oliver didn't know if this was his brother or not, but either way, he had no rational explanation that a team of professionals would believe if they saw a reanimated corpse. He hoped Lin had some sort of sorcery that could effectively deal with the situation.

"Don't do anything stupid," Lin warned dourly before hurrying toward the cabin where the dive team was still holed up.

"Mai, you are to stay calm and behind me no matter what. Do you understand?" Oliver whispered gravely.

She nodded against his back her eyes still peeking around him to watch Eugene's body expel the last of the water from his lungs. He wiped his mouth and then Eugene's body sat back and breathed deeply, before locking matching indigo eyes with Oliver. He looked the exact same as the day he had left from the airport; sixteen and healthy. Oliver wanted to believe this was his brother, but he knew it was most likely a cruel trick. He felt grief so powerful he had to swallow back the lump in his throat. It was terribly cold-blooded to make him see his brother just as he remembered and know that it couldn't last.

"Why am I coughing up water? Ugh, you couldn't have helped me? And what are you doing in Japan Noll?" Eugene groaned out.

"Looking for you and you don't remember?" Oliver answered as calmly as he could.

"No. I feel sore and awful with a pounding headache, but I don't remember a thing," he said and shook his wet hair out of his face. When merely shaking his head didn't work, he ran a hand through it to slick it back.

"You've been dead for nearly a year."

Eugene blinked and broke out in a small laugh, "Good one Noll, but what really happened? Did I hit my head and fall into the lake or something?"

"You've been dead for a year. You got hit in a car accident and thrown into the lake," Oliver answered grimly. He was going to viciously exorcise whatever was inhabiting his brother's body for making him deal with this.

Eugene furrowed his brow and pursed his lips in confusion, "Do you expect me to believe I just got better?"

Oliver monitored him closely for signs of deceit through narrowed eyes. "No, I don't understand it either and I don't know that you are really my brother."

"What do you mean? Of course, I am! Can't you tell?" he asked distressed. He stood up from the ground and shivered from his still-wet clothes. Then he caught sight of Mai peering from behind his brother's shoulder and a teasing grin lit up his whole face.

"Say, Noll, don't tell me you managed to find a girlfriend who would put up with your idiot scientist idiosyncrasies while I was away?"

Oliver felt Mai sputter against his back and could feel the heat of a blush on her cheeks through his jacket. Truthfully, he wasn't faring well either, he could feel a faint heat creeping up his own cheeks.

"We aren't dating," he replied sullenly. Whoever this was certainly teased him like Eugene always had.

"Well, that just shows she has good taste. After all, I've always been the better-looking twin," he said with a wink at the short brunette girl.

Mai wilted at the frigid way Oliver had said they weren't dating. It was true they weren't together, but he didn't have to say it like it was a repulsive thought. She piped up for the first time since this debacle began and said in a deadpan tone, "I changed my mind Oliver. I thought no one could be as narcissistic as you, but now that I've met your brother in-person I can say that you truly are twins."

Oliver couldn't help himself he broke out in soft, disbelieving chuckle against his will, "What did you expect Mai? We are identical twins, idiot."

He traced his eyes over his maybe twin brother in disbelief. He talked, teased, and acted exactly like he remembered Gene. He wanted this to be Gene so badly, but he didn't trust his own judgment. He didn't subscribe to the philosophy that if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. That was only abductive reasoning and was a flawed method of determining an answer in his opinion. Still watching his twin for any signs of sudden movement or an attack he addressed his young assistant softly again, "What do you say Mai? You've had the most contact with him recently; can you tell if this is Gene?"

Her large wide eyes widened even further at the realization that she had been the one to see and talk to him most recently. Her hands clenched harder on Oliver's sleeve and he saw her glance imploringly at his twin brother's visage. "Do you remember me?" she asked hopefully.

Eugene tilted his head and regarded her carefully. She clearly thought he should remember her for some reason. He softened his expression and smiled sincerely at her. "I'm sorry love. I don't remember much of anything right now. Should I remember you?"

Mai's eyes widened at his gentle look. It was the same look he always gave her in her dreams. She had a flash of inspiration. That was the answer! A few minutes ago, she had been able to hear Eugene call out to her while she was awake instead of exclusively while she was dreaming. It might be a long shot, but she could try to talk to him again. She closed her eyes to mentally search for the feel of her spirit guide's consciousness. She felt for the specific combination of cheerful, warm, and powerful she associated with 'DreamNaru'. When she found it there was a blockage that stopped her from making contact. Dismayed and determined to help Oliver, she pressed firmly against the blockage and with some resistance the barrier gave way.

"Eugene?"

"How did you do that?" Eugene exclaimed out loud. Mai opened her eyes to see that Gene's eyes were even bluer when they were widened and he had taken a step back from her.

"It's him Oliver, but if you want to make sure you could call Bou-san and Brown-san to confirm," she said easing her white-knuckled grip on his sleeve. Her fingers were stiff and strangely numb. Mai felt unexpectedly overwhelmed by exhaustion.

"That's sensible. It seems I've taught you something over the last year," he said with a smug look.

Mai took a step away from her boss. A wave of dizziness and nausea hit her and blood pulsed through her ears in sync to her suddenly accelerated heartbeat. "Naru, I don't feel so good," she whispered faintly as she stumbled back. Blackness stole across her vision, her legs gave out, and the ground rushed up to meet her.

Oliver had been watching his brother so intently that until Mai had whispered weakly about not feeling well, he hadn't looked back at her at all. He could curse himself for that now. Mai was dangerously pale and her eyes were unfocused and he had no idea how long she had looked that way. He watched as she took a step back and stumbled. As she fainted, he instinctively jumped to catch her.

Sinking down to the ground he pressed two fingers to the pulse point at her neck. He let out a gust of breath he hadn't realized he was holding when he felt her pulse under his fingertips. Her pulse was weak and fluttering, but it was still there. He raised panicked eyes to his older brother who had joined him next to Mai. Eugene had always helped him pick up the pieces and he couldn't help but revert to that behavior with so much at stake.

"Does she have a pulse?" Eugene asked anxiously.

Oliver nodded. "It's very weak though."

"I'll get Lin. You stay here and watch her. If she stops breathing regularly or her heartbeat stops perform CPR immediately. Don't wait, Noll," Eugene ordered over his shoulder as he stood up and raced toward the cabin yelling loudly for Lin.

Oliver cradled Mai's upper torso in his lap, listening to her breathe and feeling her faint heartbeat through his fingers. His thoughts raced a mile a minute, trying to catalogue everything he'd learned about CPR. All he could remember were the numbers: two breaths for every thirty compressions at a rate of one hundred to one twenty beats per minute. He decided in that moment that as soon as he was reasonably able to, he would take a certified CPR class. Who had let him manage an office without a first aid class?

In between his thoughts on CPR, he somehow knew that Mai's collapse was a result of his brother's miraculous recovery. He wasn't sure how this was even possible, but as soon as he had a minute to figure it out, he would bury himself in research. He was so intensely focused on Mai's vitals and his own thoughts that he didn't notice Lin race up to him until the tall Chinese man reached for Mai. Oliver flinched back pulling Mai with him.

"Eugene's calling for an ambulance, but I need to check her Noll," he spoke softly and raised his hands non-threateningly.

Noll looked up at Lin and as soon as recognition flared in his eyes Lin reached for Mai again. He tucked his hair behind his ear revealing his right eye in order to assess her aura. His right eye was a bright blue and was capable of seeing more of the electromagnetic spectrum than solely visible light. Mai's aura was a dull muddy color to his vision, but because it was so faint, he couldn't glean much information from her aura alone. He pressed a hand between her eyes and one to the center of her chest. Lin reached for his qi and directed it through his hands into his young co-worker. He could see that her qi was dangerously low and snarled chaotically around her heart like a tangled bundle of yarn.

He withdrew his energy and sat back on his heels frowning. "What happened Noll? If her energy was any lower she would have gone into Sudden Cardiac Arrest. As it is right now, she's just fainted, but it easily could have been a lot worse."

Oliver loosened his grip on her and let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "I don't know. One minute she was fine and then the next she lost consciousness."

Eugene raced up with two paramedics at that moment and they checked her vitals and placed her onto a stretcher. The three men backed away and watched as her small frame was loaded into the ambulance and rushed off.

"Come on. We'll follow behind the ambulance and talk in the car," said Lin to the two twins.

Oliver was so furious with himself that he couldn't speak as the three of them loaded up into the SPR van. He had brought Mai here with them, so it was his responsibility to look after her and he had let her be hospitalized. He knew she was only sixteen and needed someone to watch out for her, she was one of the most accident-prone people he had ever met. She was constantly tripping, falling asleep in strange places, or being attacked by ghosts. At this rate, her vexing habit of getting hurt was going to give him a heart attack. What he really needed were two of him to watch over her.

Lin evaluated the water-soaked twin and asked, "First things first, how do we know that he's Eugene and not dangerous? My shiki can't sense anything out of the ordinary, but they aren't infallible."

Oliver looked up from his lap and unclenched his jaw. "Mai said so, but I am unsure how she determined such a thing. She recommended Bou-san and Father Brown double-check her conclusion."

Lin's brows rose in shock. "And how exactly did she determine that?" he asked.

"She collapsed afterward and I didn't have a chance to ask," Oliver said woodenly.

Eugene spoke up falteringly, "She called out to me inside my mind... I think? I don't know how that's possible though. I've never been able to communicate with any living person like that, except you Noll and even that was never words, just general feelings."

"She spoke to you telepathically? She's never shown any indication of being capable of something like that," Lin said in disbelief as he turned on his blinker and then turned left onto another road.

Oliver groaned. Why and how had he managed to hire someone who was capable of getting herself into so many convoluted situations? She was obviously a trouble-magnet with literally zero self-preservation capabilities. Oliver glared at his twin as he spoke, "Because apparently, ever since Mai met me, Eugene here has been helping her as her spirit guide and didn't think to inform her that we were identical twins, so she thought she was dreaming about me or hallucinating the whole thing."

"I did what?" Eugene exclaimed sounding genuinely shocked.

Lin's mind made several connections in rapid succession. The mystery of why Mai was allowed on this trip and about half his earlier questions were satisfactorily answered for Lin. He relaxed back into the driver's seat, "If she was telepathically able to communicate with Eugene as her spirit guide then I would say that it would make some sort of sense that the bond was able to be replicated now that Gene's spirit is back in his body. It was a connection between spirits or souls, so theoretically they could have remained linked. I'd say Mai communicating telepathically was a pretty strong indication of Eugene's identity actually, but I would also second having Takagawa and Father Brown verify this conclusion as they are both experts on possession and exorcisms."

There was quiet in the car for several moments while all of them thought about the ramifications of such a situation.

Lin let out an uncharacteristic chuckle, "Wait, you're saying that Taniyama-san met a nice version of you in her dreams and it was so unrealistic to her that she assumed she was hallucinating? No wonder she never believed in or wanted to share her visions with us."

"You were mean to my student Noll? How uncool," Eugene pouted.

Noll crossed his arms and glowered. "It's not like I knew she was your student and you certainly could have told her you weren't me," he said petulantly.

"I notice you didn't try to deny you were mean to her," Gene retorted.

Oliver rolled his eyes, "I wasn't that bad."

Lin felt like hanging his head in exasperation only the necessity of keeping his eyes on the road prevented him from doing so. Noll had needled his assistant every chance he got. He was like a boy pulling on a little girl's pigtails. Those two were always arguing like an old married couple. It was actually stranger when the two of them weren't arguing with each other. This weekend, when they had been cordial had been bizarre to witness.

"I find that hard to believe," Eugene muttered under his breath. He leaned forward in his seat and tilted his head to the side. "Hey Lin, how come I don't remember being Mai's spirit guide?" Eugene asked. He was bothered that he couldn't remember the only person that he had apparently communicated with for nearly a year.

"Well you were technically dead and only dead spirits should remember the afterlife," Lin shrugged out his best-guess answer.

Eugene nodded thoughtfully. "Oh, that makes sense. I don't understand what happened though. How did I manage to come back? We've investigated some pretty messed up stuff before, but never a case of true reanimation."

"I don't know without further research," Lin said grimly as he pulled into a parking spot at the hospital. This was a more complicated case then they usually dealt with and they were so far outside of his specialty that he didn't feel comfortable guessing without more information.

"Lin, can you check on Mai?" said Oliver. He got out of the vehicle, straightened his jacket, and slipped his cell phone into his pocket.

"Alright, but where are you going?"

Oliver grabbed the sleeve of Eugene's shirt and began dragging him toward the other side of the hospital. "Eugene is going to the doctors."

"What? Noll, I feel fine. I don't need to see a doctor," Gene protested as he dug his heels in.

"You were hit by a car, drowned, and have been a rotting corpse for over a year. I've already made an appointment. You're seeing a doctor and as soon as you are cleared, you're calling Martin and Luella. They think you are dead still," He said bluntly.

Eugene's eyes softened in understanding. Noll was just worried about him. He would never tell you what he felt you had to figure it out from his actions. Oliver had always been the less expressive twin that had trouble understanding his own feelings nonetheless someone else's. Eugene stopped dragging his heels and let Oliver's long legs eat up the distance to the hospital. "Okay I'll go to the doctors and I missed you too Noll."

Noll scowled in response, "We need a baseline health assessment so we can determine how you were inexplicably revived and to make sure you don't contract pneumonia and manage to kill yourself all over again, moron."

Eugene rolled his eyes. Some things would never change.

A/N So, now that we're past this point in the story I can tell you why I started this story. The sequel to the manga wasn't translated when I read this series last and I was devastated when it was revealed that Gene hadn't passed on. Like I literally cried (me an adult) over the thought that Naru would continue to see his dead brother in the mirror for years and right now they still look the same, but what happens when Naru is 25? 40? or even older and Eugene is still 16 years old? I feel like the author didn't realize how hard that would be for Naru and how that would keep him from healing fully. That would be like always having an open wound. So my solution was to bring Gene back of course :P

Also, those numbers for CPR are correct based on the last time I took a certified class. I highly recommend taking a CPR class. Hopefully, you never have to use the information, but it is good to have it just in case.

Thank you for reading! And please let me know what you think or if you have a suggestion by reviewing.

-Blushin

Chapter Text

Oliver slipped his cell phone from his jacket pocket and handed it to Eugene after his physical. "Call Martin and Luella, but don't give too many details over the phone," he warned his brother.

"Why not?" Eugene asked.

"It's too dangerous in a crowded place like this. Tell them we can discuss it later if you have to," he murmured. Oliver waited for his brother's nod of agreement. "I'll wait down the hall and when you finish, we'll go to check with Lin about Mai."

"You don't have to wait for me Noll if you want to check up on her," Eugene said as he began to dial his adoptive parent's phone number.

Oliver smirked at him, "You don't even know the room number. You would undoubtedly get lost."

"Sometimes, you are an ass," Eugene grumbled. He watched Oliver walk several doors down and lean casually against the wall with his arms crossed.

Gene pressed the call button and waited nervously for his parents to pick up. He didn't have to wait long as his mother's low soothing voice answered after the second ring, "Oliver, would it kill you to call me more than once a month?"

He blinked back a wave of tears. He hadn't realized how much he needed to hear his mother's voice. He didn't remember being dead, but he the memories from the car accident and subsequent drowning were coming back to him vividly. He could remember the candy apple red of the car, the woman's heels, the softness of the blanket against his injuries, and how the cold of the water and sheer terror had stolen his breath. He remembered the regret he felt that he hadn't gotten to say goodbye. His mom sounded sadder than he remembered and he felt a pang of guilt that he had caused that. "Mom?," he said with an unsteady voice.

"Oliver, you're scaring me. Are you alright?" she asked frantically.

"Mom. I'm not Oliver," was all he managed to choke out.

"Eugene?" she barely breathed out, afraid to hope. "This isn't a joke? Oliver said he saw-"

"Oliver wasn't wrong. We don't understand what happened, but he and Lin found me earlier today and I'm okay," he said. He felt the tears spill over his cheeks. He had been so scared that he would never get to hear or see his family again. He dashed the tears away with the heel of his palm and started pacing the hall.

"I'm so glad you're okay. I thought I lost you" she cried and Eugene could hear her soft sobs through the phone.

"I'm sorry. I'm okay now," he answered.

"This is real? It's not a dream?" she sniffled.

"It's real," he confirmed through his own rough voice.

"I'm calling your father right now and we'll book the first flight we can get out," she said.

"You don't need to do that," he replied thickly.

"Yes, we do. We thought you were dead. I'll text the details to Oliver's phone. Do tell him to call me later. I want to talk to him too," his mother said her voice still shaky and hoarse from her tears.

"I will," he said smiling through his tears. Figures he would have to remind his brother not to be a robot.

"Could you text me, so I know this isn't something I've dreamed again after you hang up?" Luella Davis asked desperately. She had dreamed of her son being alive so vividly in the days after his death that it broke her heart all over again when she woke up and realized it wasn't real.

His heart ached at the pain in his mother's voice. "I can do that," he said softly.

"I love you and I'm so happy you're alive," she said fervently.

"I love you too Mom, bye," he said as he hung up the phone. He sent a quick text to his mother to let her know that their conversation was real and not just the grief talking. He hung his head and used his long bangs to hide his tears. He gave himself a few moments, before he composed himself and glanced around looking for his brother. When he caught sight of his twin, he was watching him carefully. When Oliver realized that Gene had noticed his stare he quickly looked away and stared at something down the opposite end of the hall. Gene chuckled through his tears. The day Noll admitted he cared for someone, even his own family, would be the day hell froze over.

Gene walked over to his brother and while Oliver was still pretending that he hadn't been watching him, Gene enveloped him in a tight hug.

Oliver froze and said, "Get off of me idiot. You still smell like pond scum." However, completely belying his words, Oliver relaxed, wrapped his arms around his brother and gingerly squeezed back. Eugene laughed and when he let go of Oliver there was a small smile on his lips too.

"Well lead on, let's go find Taniyama-san's room," said Eugene. As Noll led the way toward his assistant's room Eugene remembered to tell his brother about his phone conversation with their mother. "Oh! Mom said she and father are hopping the next available flight."

Oliver shrugged. "I should have guessed that would happen." Considering that he had flown halfway around the world to find his brother's body, he found that he could understand his adoptive parents' reasons.

The two brothers went up to the fourth floor on the elevator and then down several hallways until they reached room Mai's hospital room. The door was closed, but down the hall Lin sat in an uncomfortable looking plastic chair. They made their way down the hall toward Lin moving with more urgency now that they couldn't get into see Mai right away.

"What have they said so far?" Eugene asked.

Lin sighed, "They haven't allowed any visitors yet, but a doctor came out to inform me of her condition."

Oliver could feel his palms sweat. He wiped them surreptitiously on his slacks. "And what did they determine?"

Lin turned his steady gaze toward Oliver and said, "At this point, pending further tests, they believe it was Stress Cardiomyopathy."

"She had a heart attack like Noll used to when he used too much PK by himself?" Eugene asked as he sat back in another one of the plastic chairs with his brows furrowed. Oliver seemed stuck standing up so Eugene grabbed his wrist and tugged him into the seat beside him. Eugene had been through the long terrible moments of waiting to hear about a loved one in the hospital before his brother and him had worked out how to control Oliver's PK between them, but he was sure that Oliver hadn't ever had to be the one that waited on news before. The waiting was the worst part in Gene's opinion.

"You didn't release any PK while you were with Taniyama-san did you?" Lin asked carefully of his ward. Oliver's shock was palpable and he didn't want to make anything worse for the young man. It had already been a rough enough day.

"I don't exactly know. The hand that Mai had ahold of was warm. I had PK built up in case of an attack, but I didn't consciously release any energy and I certainly would have noticed releasing enough energy to induce a heart attack" he answered in a daze.

Lin frowned and leaned forward. "What about you Gene? There was a large flash of light that came off of you before you were revived. Could it have been something you did?"

Eugene shook his head slowly, "The first thing I remember is being cold and then coughing water out of my lungs. Besides, I've never been able to expel as much energy as Noll and Taniyama-san seemed fine until several minutes later." Eugene paused before continuing slowly, "If it wasn't energy Noll released and it wasn't energy from me could it be something she did?"

"Taniyama-san has never shown any indications of PK abilities," said Lin dismissively.

Oliver swore. The two occupants of the room looked over in surprise, Oliver never swore, he simply wasn't the type. Privately, Gene assumed it was because Oliver thought himself too good to swear. Oliver normally was the type to ignore people or situations that displeased him and, in the event, that he couldn't ignore them he tore into people with clever insults.

It was disconcerting to look at his brother and see a stranger. His brother was still familiar of course, but things had changed in the year he was gone. Oliver looked older and his already uncommon smiles were even rarer. His mask of bored indifference seemed permanently stuck on his face. He had for some reason tolerated a teenage girl as an assistant when he normally avoided them at all costs.

"She wouldn't have. During the only test I've ever given her, she unconsciously tried to hide her abilities and got all one thousand answers wrong." Oliver loathed himself right about now. How could he have overlooked such an obvious thing? He personally knew how dangerous unknown and untrained psychic powers were. If he had tested her more or not been so wrapped up in his own problems he might have noticed if she had other abilities aside from her dreams and a strong sense of danger. Just what else had he missed?

"She literally missed every single test out of a thousand? Woah that takes some serious skill," Eugene said taken aback.

Noll raised a brow and cocked his head at his brother, "What do you mean?"

Gene blinked confused at his brother, this was unlike his brother to overlook something like this. He must have really had a tough year. Normally his brother was the most anal-retentive scientist at SPR and would have never missed an anomaly like this.

"I mean that statistically without any abilities she should have gotten about twenty five percent right. However, if someone consistently scores even slightly above that even as little as five or ten percent more than that we would consider them to have latent sensitivities, but Oliver you're saying that she was unconsciously trying to get every one of them wrong and she succeeded at that. In fact, for her purposes she succeeded one hundred percent of the time. The odds of someone accidentally getting zero correct out of a thousand is so small it might as well be impossible. To do that without even trying is indicative of a pretty gifted individual," Eugene said with a casual wave of his hand.

Oliver put his head in his hands and groaned, "I can't believe I missed that." He despised himself and how oblivious he had been. He had miscalculated Mai's skills entirely and as a result of his mistake and inattention she was currently in the hospital. There was no way she had understood the kind of danger she was in with her abilities to ask for help. For all that she had learned over the past year about the paranormal, he had stayed far away everything but the superficial effects of PK and he had certainly never brought up what happened if a person used too much PK in worry that he would give too many clues to his true identity. Worst of all was he knew that Mai had a bad habit of leaving information out or flat out not telling him until it was too late. There was no telling what else she had just not shared at all.

"I did not consider that either," Lin said looking contemplatively at the girl's closed hospital room. He had worked with her for nearly a year, but he had been so caught up in his prejudice against Japanese people and grief over Eugene that he had failed to recognize her abilities and the training she obviously desperately needed.

"So, we're going with Taniyama-san has some sort of ability, possibly PK? And she accidently gave herself a heart attack? How are we going to explain this mess to her parents? I don't suppose it's too much to hope that they are firm believers in parapsychiatry?" Eugene questioned wryly.

"She doesn't have any parents, they're gone," Noll said bluntly without looking up from his hands.

"Like gone for the week?" Eugene asked hopefully.

"Don't be obtuse. Mai is an orphan," Noll finally looked up and glared at his brother.

Gene sighed, "I was hoping that you didn't mean that. She looks too young to be on her own."

"She's sixteen and as far as I know she doesn't have a legal guardian. I didn't find out from her, her principal is the one that let it slip, so I didn't ask for any particulars," his twin answered.

Eugene looked over at his brother's stoic features suspiciously. Noll might have fooled everyone else, but he was his twin and he might have been dead for a year, but he damn well still knew his brother well enough to have a pretty good idea of exactly why his brother had hired a teenage girl when he didn't even know the full scope of her abilities.

"All of this is just speculation at the moment until we can speak to Taniyama-san. We won't know what happened, besides that might not even be what happened considering that there's never been a case of PK healing the dead," interjected Lin.

Oliver nodded in agreement and spoke, "I've already called Bou-san and Father Brown in to consult with us. They will be in town in the morning."

The three of them waited around for another hour. Eugene fidgeted and received a few glares from his brother, but other than that they were all silent while they waited for another update from a doctor or for Mai to wake up. Eugene was surprised that a few harsh looks were all he received for his fidgeting. He expected Noll to have bitten his head off by now, but he hadn't yet. Perhaps his brother was just glad he was back? Either that or somehow Noll had become more tolerant of noise over the last year.

The doctor finally exited Mai's room. He was a tall and professional-looking man in his late thirties. When he noticed the three of them waiting, he made his way straight down the hall toward them. "You're here for Taniyama-san?" he asked and at their nods and expectant looks he began to fill them in. "I'm doctor Sato. We did confirm that Taniyama-san did indeed have a stress related heart attack. It was relatively minor and she received assistance quickly, so as long as she rests up for another couple of days, she should be good as new. We would like to observe her overnight and provided everything goes well she can be discharged tomorrow morning."

All three of the men relaxed into their seats, relieved for their lively friend.

"Do any of you know what Taniyama-san was doing prior to collapse? Taniyama-san claims not to know what caused her collapse, but it takes a significant stressor for a sixteen-year-old with no prior history to suffer from Stress Cardiomyopathy." The doctor asked skeptically.

Both Lin and Eugene looked to Oliver to take the lead on this answer. None of them had discussed what they would tell the attending doctors and Oliver had always been the best at coming up with cover stories. Eugene could charm his way out of trouble, but Oliver could think his way out of trouble and right now they needed a logical explanation to give to the doctor.

Oliver got the message loud and clear from the two other men. He pasted a concerned look on his face and was surprised when it came more easily than it ever had before. Brushing away the observation, he addressed the doctor, "My brother drowned and Mai exerted a large amount of energy to revive him. She was the closest to him and by the time the both of us got there she had already resuscitated him. She collapsed only a few minutes later."

He waved a hand to indicate his twin and Eugene nodded gravely, "I'm not sure what would have happened if she hadn't been there. The General Practitioner down in Family Medicine told me I was extremely lucky someone was there to help me."

The doctor took a pen from behind his ear and scribbled a few words onto his clipboard. "Well that makes sense why she doesn't remember it, she's probably still in a bit of shock. Do any of you happen to know her how to get in contact with her parents or guardians?" He asked absentmindedly.

"Mai is an orphan and emancipated as far as I know," Oliver answered the doctor.

The doctor abruptly stopped writing and looked up to meet Oliver's serious eyes. The doctor sighed unhappily, "Orphaned you said? Does she have a roommate or someone she stays with?"

"No."

"As she is emancipated, I can't make her stay with someone, but I strongly recommend that she isn't left alone for at least the next few days in case of a relapse," the doctor said solemnly to Lin, who was the oldest and therefore most responsible looking of the three of them.

Lin nodded and glanced sideways at Oliver as he answered, "I believe that was the plan anyway. She came to this prefecture with us and we have a place to stay for another few days, before heading back to Tokyo."

"Excellent! it would have felt irresponsible to release the young lady to manage on her own," said Doctor Sato. He brushed a hand through his short black hair.

"Is she awake yet?" Oliver asked the doctor curtly.

"Yes, she is awake and if you don't put her up to any strenuous activity young man you can go in and visit her," said the doctor with a sly wink.

Gene's eyes widened and he turned his head to cough in his sleeve to disguise his aborted laughter. As if his stoic brother would ever do such a thing. Most likely they would be in and out of the room in a matter of minutes if it were left up to his brother. Luckily, what the doctor had said seemed to completely go over his brother's head. He saw Noll glance suspiciously at him before turning his attention back to the doctor.

"I won't cause her any more stress," Oliver said with a smile that didn't meet his eyes. Gene wondered when someone wouldn't be tricked by his brother's easy smile. He knew his brother wasn't heartless, but he also knew that Oliver only smiled to fool people into relaxing around him and when he was truly caught off guard. His little brother was entirely too serious for a seventeen-year-old.

"Then you are all welcome to go in and cheer her up," the doctor said with a small smile before he walked to the nurse's station to exchange patient files.

Oliver was up off his seat and down the hall the fastest. He was halfway down the hall before Lin and Eugene were out of the waiting room. He shot them an impatient look as he tapped his foot irritatedly at the door waiting for the other two to catch up.

When they caught up, he eased the door open and got his first look at his young assistant and felt a pang of self-loathing and guilt twist through his stomach all over again. She was staring out the window absentmindedly into the fading sunlight and didn't hear him open the door, so he got a good look at her without the determinedly cheerful front she nearly always presented. Her cheeks were drained of color and her wide eyes had even larger purple bags underneath them. She was hooked up to an IV and she looked fragile and confused.

It was such a difference from her normal demeanor that Oliver felt disconcerted. He had seen her cycle through her normal depressed, upset, and then cheerful demeanor before, but he had never seen her get this depressed. He supposed that the situation warranted it, but it was unusual to see Mai this quiet and downtrodden. She always had a large cheerful presence that made it easy to forget that she was only a petite sixteen-year-old girl. He doubted the rest of the team would continue to work with him if it wasn't for Mai holding them together. He knew that neither he nor Lin had the required warmth to inspire people to work with them, previously in England that had been Gene's job. He was uncomfortable seeing Mai like this. It seemed wrong, like he was intruding on something intensely private.

The other two followed him into the room, so he quickly cleared his throat to alert her of their presence. Her heart monitor jumped in response as she was startled out of her quiet contemplation. She tried for a small smile, but it trembled on her lips and even he could tell it was false.

"Lin-san, Oliver-san, Eugene-san what are you guys doing here?" she asked after a moment of gathering her thoughts. She hadn't thought any of them would show up to her hospital room, in fact she hadn't expected anyone at all since she was an orphan and didn't have any emergency contacts listed. She assumed that as soon they confirmed Eugene's identity, they would shut down the office and all leave for home. Now that Lin-san and Oliver had found Eugene and alive as well, they had no need to stay in Japan and therefore no need of her. After all there would be no more cases and no more office for her to work on. Maybe they were coming to let her know that she needed to take the train back into Tokyo? She certainly didn't want to burden them with her presence or with something she could manage on her own. She pulled herself together. She had been on her own for years at this point and she could manage to take care of herself just fine.

She hurried to fill the silence. "I can make it home on my own if that's what you are worried about. I won't hold you back from getting home as soon as possible." She plastered a bright smile on and crinkled her eyes so they couldn't catch the insincerity of it.

Lin grimaced internally. He must have been really callous for her to think that he would ever leave someone of his acquaintance to make their way home from the hospital after having a heart attack, especially a young underaged girl. He had thought his working relationship with her had been getting better, but clearly it still wasn't well enough.

It took Eugene a moment to go from confused about the situation to thunderous. He knew his brother was an idiot scientist and that Lin was stoic with a dislike of the Japanese, but what exactly had they said or done to induce that kind of reaction? He was furious with his companions, from all accounts the two of them had worked with Mai Taniyama for nearly a year and not only had they failed to notice her skills, but she clearly thought they would leave her to make her way home after collapsing on their account. Obviously, leaving his brother alone had severely stunted his social graces. He didn't remember communicating with Mai while he was dead, but from the little he had seen before she collapsed, she was kind hearted and sincere.

Oliver stopped short and crossed his arms. She had called him Oliver-san, he didn't think she had used an honorific with his name ever. At least not since she had come up with Naru as nickname for him. He had noticed that she had stopped calling him Naru since the night she had found the photograph, but he'd not thought too much about it, since she had just found out his real given name that evening. Now with the addition of –san to his name he had figured out exactly what she was doing; she was distancing herself and attempting to leave them before they could leave her. This was exactly like the Ryokuryou Highschool case all over again, where Mai had assumed the worst of him. He tapped her forehead gently, mindful of her delicate state, and sighed out, "Silly, you still give up on other people too easily. Didn't I tell you that was annoying?"

Mai glanced down and hid her eyes with her bangs. She clutched the hospital blanket in both hands and ground out, "I was trying to be considerate. I know you must want to leave and get home as soon as possible."

"You shouldn't miss this much class if it makes you this stupid. Weren't you the one that suggested we get Bou-san and John's opinion?" He teased as he sat on the edge of her bed.

Mai flushed angrily and glared up at him. "You are such a jerk!"

Just a little more. He smirked at her, "Come now, that's not what you normally call me. I know my brain works differently than yours, but you shouldn't have forgotten already."

"Naru," she growled out, her eyes spitting fire.

His lips twisted up into a small genuine smile, "That's better. I was beginning to think you had knocked yourself stupid when you fell."

Mai blinked up at him and the flush on her cheeks spread further. Had he really wanted her to call him Naru? What did that mean? She pouted. Interacting with Naru always left her so confused.

Eugene stared at his brother and pinched his forearm. Pain flared sharply from between his fingers. He quickly let go and glanced over at Lin. Lin looked bored and not the least bit shocked. When had his brother touching someone and practically flirting with a girl to get her to call him by a nickname become normal Noll behavior? Noll hated touching other people and had never let anyone, but him, his twin, call him by a nickname before. He felt a tiny pang of jealousy; those things had always been reserved for him. Just what had he missed this past year? He felt the gulf between him and his brother grow. Would things between him and his twin ever be as close as they had been or had being separated for so long irreparably changed their relationship?

"I'm not stupid," she said.

Naru shrugged his black-clad shoulders nonchalantly. "If you say so Mai." He eyed her carefully, her color was better now and she wasn't so hunched into herself anymore. "You told the doctor you didn't remember what happened, is that true?"

Her cinnamon eyes shot to Eugene and then back to Oliver's deep indigo gaze. "No, I'm just not stupid enough to tell a doctor what actually happened," she crossed her arms and grumbled resentfully.

"That's probably for the best. I told the doctor you wore yourself out resuscitating Eugene after he drowned, so he thinks you're traumatized. It would be beneficial if you let him continue thinking that," he said.

Mai opened her mouth to object, but instead of words a yawn fell from her mouth. Her eyes watered and she covered her mouth politely with her hand. She gave them a sheepish look. She didn't want to sleep yet. When she woke up they would be one more day closer to leaving her and she greedily wanted to spend as much time with them as she could, she knew from personal experience she would regret not saving up as many memories as possible if she didn't try.

"We'll discuss this more tomorrow. Go to sleep and we'll pick you up tomorrow before meeting with Bou-san and Father Brown," Naru cut in before Mai could speak.

She nodded slowly and settled back into her hospital bed. She sighed softly. She always seemed to be falling asleep these days, she was exhausted though and knew it would be foolish to stay awake after what had happened today. Already her eyelids felt heavy. She gathered up her courage and asked, "Will you stay for a few minutes? Just until I fall asleep?"

Eugene stepped up next to her bed and adjusted the pillow behind her and smoothed the covers over her. "I hate to do this but, I'm going to have to agree with my brother this time - you are silly. We weren't planning on leaving until after you fell asleep anyway," he said, his voice soft and deep, with a teasing smile on his lips.

Mai traced her eyes over his features. His eyes were so much softer looking than Naru's that they didn't even appear to be the same shape. They were the same color and both framed by long inky lashes, but Eugene's eyes were warm and kind while Naru's looked exotic and sly. Her body began to get heavy and when she blinked her eyes were slow to reopen. She continued her perusal, Eugene seemed sincere and behind him she could see Lin leaned against the wall and Naru's legs stretched out in a pose that suggested he wasn't moving anytime soon. She breathed out, "Thank you," before she felt her eyes slide closed one last time and sleep pull her under.

Chapter Text

V

Mai was back at the cabin with Lin and the twins by mid-morning the next day. She was sitting out on the porch getting some fresh air while the men were inside working. She breathed deeply and let out the tension she had been holding. She relaxed into the chair thankful to be outside of the hospital. She bit her lip and worried at it as she contemplated the plan for the next few days. No one had told her the plan for after Monk and John arrived and she was tired of being left out and only told things at the last minute. It seemed to her that she was always the last to know. It made her nervous to not know what they were doing; this wasn't like a case where they had defined roles. She felt way out of her depth and didn't know what to expect.

Gene strode out of the cabin with a plush throw blanket hung over his arms. He unfolded the green throw and tucked the edges around Mai making sure to cover her exposed legs. She was wearing a skirt and long stockings, but the skirt was awfully short for the cool morning temperatures outside. While it was sunny outside, the wind off the lake was brisk and there was still snow on the peaks of the mountains surrounding the lake.

"Wouldn't want you to get cold Taniyama-san," he said with a grin as he tucked the last corner in.

She wrung the blanket between her hands and looked up at him through her long eyelashes. "Thank you and I know you don't remember the last year but, I remember you and your help very well. Please call me Mai if it's not too much trouble," she said shyly.

He might not remember her, but she was clearly Noll's friend and that was good enough for him. He was just glad that his brother had had a friend at all during the last year while he was dead. "I don't think that's too much trouble. Please call me Eugene or Gene if that's easier."

A relieved smile lit up her face. "Thank you, Gene."

He tilted her chin up tenderly, so she was looking at him properly and smiled warmly. The smile froze on his face and the words he was planning on speaking died in his throat as foreign emotions tumbled through him originating through the hand that was touching her. He got a sense of bright happiness, exhaustion, and flash of surprise before he ripped his gaze from where his hand met her skin to meet her eyes. From the sudden tensing in her shoulders and backward jerking motion Mai made, Eugene assumed that she was affected too.

He dropped his hand as if burned. The connection didn't die immediately, but kind of echoed faintly through him.

"What was that?" Mai asked breathlessly. It had felt like warmth and kindness humming under her skin, but it hadn't been her coming from her. In fact, she was almost positive that those feelings were coming from Gene.

Eugene flexed his fingers. "I don't know, but we should probably let Lin and Noll know."

She nodded slowly.

He cleared his throat and began saying what he was previously going to say before he had been interrupted by the strange exchange of emotions that had stopped him. "Of course, and at some point, I want to know about how we met and what happened this last year from your perspective," he said with an easy coaxing expression slipping onto his face.

Bou-san and John had pulled up just as Mai had jerked away and Eugene dropped his hand. However, it wasn't just John and Bou-san who had shown up. Ayako, Masako, and Yasuhara all piled out of the back seat of the car as Bou-san turned off the engine. Masako ran her hands down her delicately plum blossom patterned kimono to smooth out the wrinkles that had accumulated from the long trip. She had a scowl etched onto her face that she couldn't manage to completely hide with her sleeve. Being the youngest and smallest, she had ended up in the middle between the other two occupants of the backseat and Yasuhara had riled up Ayako and Takigawa at every possible chance. She was tired of being squished and pushed around constantly. Not to mention the ringing in her ears from the excessive noise the both of them had created by yelling at each other constantly.

"You are not Naru," Takigawa Houshou accused as he raced up the steps taking two at a time. He stopped several feet away from the two, prepared to intervene, grab Mai and take her to safety if necessary. The look on his face was hard with determination and distrust as his eyes darted back and forth between Mai and the Naru look-alike. Takigawa didn't know what spirit was inhabiting Naru's body, but Naru never initiated unnecessary physical contact nor would Mai, with her pesky crush, ever wrench herself away from his touch. In addition, Naru didn't make cajoling expressions, if Naru wanted something he normally demanded it rather than use persuasion.

Gene took a step back from Mai only now realizing how close he had been standing to her and turned around sharply at the interruption. He glanced at the assembled group standing at the ready before him. The youngest two members of the group were hanging back with wary looks painted across their faces. The blond-haired man was fingering a rosary with a prayer on his lips and was clearly a Catholic priest, albeit a very young one. The tall auburn-haired lady appeared to be in her early twenties and had her hand raised in what he thought was the beginning of a Shinto protection mantra. He concluded that she must be a shrine maiden, which made the man who addressed him the Buddhist monk his brother had called.

What an interesting group of people his brother had assembled, though he hadn't expected to be able to meet them all at this time. He would have to speak with the Priestess and the Monk before he left, since studying other methods of dispelling spirits was his original purpose in Japan.

Gene smiled charmingly at the assembled group. "No, I'm not. That would be my brother."

"Brother?" squawked Ayako.

Mai waved from her blanket cocoon. She looked pale still, especially against the contrast of the dark blanket. "Hello everyone. This is Naru's brother. Naru's inside if you want to talk with him," she said. Everyone relaxed their offensive stances at her words.

"Hello, Jou-chan. You look like you've been sick. Are you feeling alright? Naru hasn't been working you too hard?" asked Takigawa kindly as he squatted to meet her at eye level after he got over his initial shock.

Mai sat up straighter and chirped, "Perfectly fine Bou-san. I'm so surprised to see you all. I thought Naru had only called for you and John-kun."

Eugene put a hand up to his forehead and muttered, "little liar," affectionately under his breath. There was no way with how exhausted she looked that she felt fine. Besides, he had literally felt her exhaustion when they had made skin contact. He also remembered when this used to happen to Oliver and how long it took him to recover. Oliver had certainly never been "perfectly fine" the very next day, no matter how many times he, too had attempted to claim so. Luckily all of the focus was on Mai, so no one noticed his words.

The newly arrived group suddenly collectively looked nervous. "Well, we'll just go in and see him," Bou-san said. He shot the other boy one last distrustful look as the group of them trudged guiltily into the interior of the cabin.

The temperature suddenly dropped and Gene raised his brows at Mai. "What do you want to bet that they didn't tell him they were all coming?" he asked.

Mai bent over laughing in her chair, "Judging by the sudden deathly quiet emanating from in there I'd say that was a sucker's bet! Naru is probably furious, he hates when they all unexpectedly show up at the office."

"That sounds just like Noll," he said with a happy grin. He could still feel an echo of mirth from her under his skin. "Can I ask why you call him Naru? I can't imagine he told you about my nickname for him, especially if he was trying to keep a low profile."

Mai scratched the back of her head. "Well, it's actually short for Naru the Narcissist. I didn't realize it sounded like your name for him until after I heard you call him Noll," she said sounding out the foreign nickname carefully. The double L was difficult for her and even saying the word slowly didn't completely help.

It was Gene's turn to laugh uproariously. He wiped tears from his eyes as he spoke, "He let you get away with calling him that to his face?"

"Yes?" she said sheepishly.

He chuckled some more. "I'd love to know how you accomplished that." He shook his head and said, "You are one brave girl Mai Taniyama."

The two of them sat in peace for several minutes enjoying the cool morning before they both jumped at the sound of Ayako's deafening yell from inside the cabin. "She did what?"

"Well there goes the peace and quiet," Mai sighed.

The red-haired priestess came flying out the door and slid to a stop in front of the young psychic. The rest of the team, including Lin and a surly looking Naru, followed at a slower pace. "John, go get my red bag from out of the car now," she barked out. John nodded and made his way to the vehicle. He came back just a few minutes later tugging a large overstuffed suitcase that clearly belonged to the priestess. Ayako dug through the bag haphazardly before pulling out a well-used leather medical bag. She threw on a stethoscope and addressed Mai, "What did the doctor say you had Mai-chan?"

Mai cocked her head and shot a puzzled look at the other woman. "The doctor said it was Stress Cardiomyopathy and what are you doing Ayako?" she asked. To be completely honest, Mai was shocked that Ayako had a bag that wasn't filled to the brim with clothes or shoes and actually had something useful in her luggage.

Ayako rolled her dark eyes. "I'm giving you a check-up obviously. What kind of country hacks did Naru send you to? I can't believe they let you out of the hospital with Broken Heart Syndrome after only a night of observation. Normally I charge quite a bit for this so consider yourself lucky squirt," Ayako teased as she warmed up her stethoscope in her hands.

"Ayako are you a doctor? Also, I feel fine. They said it was relatively minor," Mai said as she waved her hands in front of herself chagrined. Naru stepped up to where Mai was sitting and silently handed her a steaming cup of hot tea before stepping back and leaning up against the cabin wall with his arms crossed.

"Thanks!" Mai said with a bright smile. Oliver nodded his head once and then looked off into the distance trying to ignore the antics of his team.

The red-haired woman smiled bemusedly while she listened carefully to Mai's heart and lungs. Mai's heartrate was accelerated, but Ayako chalked that up to Mai interacting with Naru. Those two danced around each other adorably in her opinion. "Of course, I'm a doctor. You didn't think I was a Miko full-time, did you? That's a terrible way to pay the bills."

"Like the filthy rich kind of doctor?" asked Mai after she picked up her dropped jaw. She felt a heavy stone drop in her stomach. She was shocked for sure, but overwhelmingly she felt left out again. All this time they had worked together and she hadn't known that about Ayako. Did Ayako just forget to mention it or had she not wanted anyone to know until her stupid injuries forced the issue? Mai shrunk in on herself. All this time working with these people and it seemed that she felt stronger about them than they felt about her. She didn't really know these people at all.

"I work in a general hospital myself, so you might say I'm rich. A housekeeper does everything for me," Ayako said with a half shrug.

Bou-san cut in with an unholy look of glee on his face, "Did you say Mai has Broken Heart Syndrome? That she was legitimately admitted into the hospital for a condition called Broken Heart Syndrome?" He rubbed his hands together and noted that Yasuhara was grinning rather mischievously too.

Ayako nodded slowly. "That's the common name for Stress Cardiomyopathy. It occurs when a person undergoes a sudden significant emotional or physical stressor."

Mai slumped into her chair and groaned lowly at the sheer impish delight on Bou-san's face. She knew exactly what was in store for her. He and the others would never let her live this down. She hadn't known that there was another name for the condition. If she had even an inkling about the common name, she would have continued to insist that she was fine rather than giving everyone that kind of ammunition against her.

"I wonder which one of our fine gentlemen caused such a terrible malady in my poor Jou-chan," Bou-san said mischievously.

"Why are you assuming it was just one of them? Maybe, it was both of them that broke her heart," piped up Yasuhara.

Mai and Eugene flushed simultaneously. Naru looked off into the distance attempting to appear unaffected and disengaged, but his eyes kept straying to the bundled-up girl. "Bou-san! Yasu!" said Mai, flustered enough to shout at her friends.

"Just what are you trying to say about me?" she followed up angrily.

Ayako rolled her eyes at the three of them and grumbled, "It would be better if I could see what kind of tests they ran on you Mai, but right now you look alright. I still think another night of observation would have been the most beneficial." She was more concerned with how seriously Mai had been hurt than the teasing the others were about to unleash on her. She narrowed her sharp brown eyes on the high schooler. "Absolutely no strenuous activity and you are to stay within someone responsible's sight at all times." She flickered her eyes up and fixed them intently on the rest of the group to be sure they got the message too that Mai was to be carefully monitored.

At Mai's answering head bob the priestess continued, "There isn't a whole lot that can be done for Stress Cardiomyopathy, but the good news is as long as you don't make a habit of doing this to yourself you should be completely back to normal in a few weeks."

"Mai couldn't be a normal girl if she tried," Masako said callously, bitter over the fact that Mai had spent the last few days almost completely alone with Naru and that he had brought her tea. Even when she had been injured or lost like on the last case, Naru had never willingly brought her anything. Mai mustered up a glower and slumped moodily down even further into her seat. She just didn't have the energy to catfight with the other teenage girl right now.

Eugene felt self-consciousness faintly ripple through whatever connection he had with Mai. He assumed this was a common occurrence based on the heavy, resigned quality to Mai's emotions. That was uncalled for thought Eugene as he frowned at the delicate ghost-looking girl that he hadn't taken much notice of before. It was one thing to good-naturedly tease someone when they were capable of fighting back, but the girl's words hadn't been teasing and Mai was visibly ill. His brain itched as he appraised her. Was she someone he had met before his death? She caught sight of the frown on his face and flinched before bowing her head.

"Who are you?" he asked more harshly than he intended. He refused to apologize though. She had been rude to the girl who had most likely brought him back to his family. Who cared about normal when you could be as exceptional as Mai was? He glanced over at the Mai to see her looking at him in shock. Did nobody ever break up the arguing and stand up for her? Irritation spiked through him at the group. No one seemed willing to jump in. Maybe he wasn't being fair since the group was friends with both younger girls, but he didn't understand why no one had at least said something in Mai's defense.

The girl's head snapped back up at his words. "Me? I'm Hara Masako," she said. Her short hair brushed her chin and the sleeve of her kimono came up to cover her dainty mouth leaving only her deceptively demure grey eyes visible.

"I see," he responded dismissively. His eyes were narrowed and the warmth that usually existed in his gaze was absent. He did recognize her. She was a medium just like him. He hadn't ever got around to visiting her prior to his death but, he had seen her show. At the moment he was glad he hadn't gotten around to meeting her previously, she seemed entitled and unkind.

While he wasn't aware of all the details of the girls' lives, he knew that Hara-san was a successful television personality and that in comparison, Mai was an orphan who struggled on her own without a support system. He didn't like the power dynamics between the two girls. It was a little too close to bullying for him even though he didn't know the original cause of friction between them.

Naru watched all of the interplay between his team from the sidelines. He was still attempting to appear disinterested in the proceedings, but he found himself unconsciously turned toward Mai during Ayako's exam. He felt his shoulders relax when she pronounced that Mai would be fine with some rest. He opened his mouth to get the group back on task and promptly closed it again at Hara-san's comment.

The connection with his brother suddenly flared with aggravation. Normally, before Eugene's death, the connection stayed inactive most of the time. They had learned to suppress the feedback they received from each other from necessity in their early teenage years, but some strong or unexpected emotions still lit the connection back up. Even though it was a negative emotion, Oliver still took comfort in the ability to feel his brother's emotions. It meant his brother was alive and he would never take that for granted again.

Naru grinned devilishly. It suddenly occurred to him that Hara-san couldn't blackmail him anymore. His brother was alive and he didn't know what they would do about the woman in the red sports car, but his identity was no longer such a sensitive issue and he had, in fact, already revealed their identities to the team. He respected Hara-sans skills, but he resented that she had taken advantage of his brother's death and his need for secrecy. Now, he no longer had to abide by the girl's petty rules.

"Hara-san, if you wouldn't mind, I have more important things to discuss," Naru stated not even affording her the courtesy of looking at her while he spoke. That had the added benefit of settling his brother's irritation. He had no idea what had agitated Gene in the first place, but he was satisfied that whatever it was had been taken care of.

He sat down on another chair on the porch and gestured for the rest of the group to do so as well. He steepled his hands and addressed the two exorcists he had actually requested the presence of, "As I was saying before, Mai spent a night in the hospital likely as a result of overtaxing herself. His eyes cut over to Mai and pierced through her daring her to object as he continued to speak, "Mai will be discussing that with me later, but for now I would request that you verify Mai's conclusion on whether this is my twin brother or a clever spirit inhabiting his body."

Mai cringed and tucked her hands under her arms. She hated it when Naru interrogated her. He never failed to make her feel stupid. And she had no doubt that this would be an interrogation rather than a discussion. Naru would ask endless questions that she would be expected to answer even if she didn't know the answer or worse- the answer was embarrassing. Her stomach sunk at the thought of Naru digging too deeply into her dreams and her thoughts on them.

Her face paled rapidly. What if it was even more dreadful than that? What if he figured out that she was in love with him?

Chapter Text

VI

"So, you weren't kidding when you said your brother had been revived after a year of being dead," Houshou Takigawa murmured his whole posture changing from relaxed to serious in an instant. He stared at Eugene intently cataloging the other boy. He observed that while the boy in question was wearing some of Naru's all-black clothes, unlike Naru, he had adopted a more casual look. He was missing the sports jacket, the top button of the dress shirt was undone, his tie was loose, and the sleeves of the shirt were rolled up partway. He got the sense that this was someone who, not only was more comfortable in his skin than Naru, but also cared more about comfort than appearance.

"Of course not," Naru scoffed at the same time as Eugene deadpanned, "My brother doesn't joke."

Intimate knowledge of his brother's personality was a good sign that he wasn't possessed. Monk continued his perusal. He wasn't a medium or blessed with ESP like other members of the team, but he had a wealth of knowledge taught to him by the monks at Mt. Kouya. Underneath Euguene's rolled-up shirtsleeves were strange white markings almost like old healed over scars. Bou-san reached out slowly and clasped Eugene's wrist gingerly. He pushed up the shirt sleeves and twisted Eugene's wrist slowly trying to make out the details of the markings. They were all over both forearms and looked nonsensical and placed without rhyme or reason. Bou-san couldn't move on though, these were strange and he could almost feel something residually emanating from them.

"What's this?" He questioned hardly above a whisper. He ran two fingers over the marks, but they were smooth and felt exactly like any other part of the surrounding skin. They looked like a decade's old scar or as if he had been born with the markings already engraved into his skin. He lifted the arm closer to his face and tilted it toward the sun. The light hit them and reflected off the silvery marks. Bou-san squinted his eyes. One of the marks kind of looked like the Sanskrit word for life if he turned his head just right. He picked up Eugene's other arm and held it up to the light. He could almost make out Kanji characters on this arm. They were an awful mess and he couldn't be sure, but that was the nearest thing he could equate these markings to.

"Are these words written on your arms? Maybe Sanskrit and Kanji?" he asked still turning the other boy's arms and peering intently at them.

Gene looked down at the other man who had been analyzing him so closely. The priest on Noll's team had at least been discreet in his examination and had conducted his chanting from a distance. However, the monk was poking and prodding him and he had to fight down the urge to yank his arms away from the intense scrutiny. "Yes, I wrote down some prayers a spiritualist told me about, but I ran out of space in my notebook, so I wrote them on my arms. The ink wore off at some point in the water, but I figured my arms were just discolored from the ink being on them for so long."

He shrugged as casually as he could manage while being tensed up and refraining from ripping his arms out of the other man's grasp. He didn't know why he was so averse to touch right now. He was typically the more tactile twin, but every time the other man touched him, he could feel that awful blanket being wrapped around his broken body. He shifted his weight back onto his other foot and attempted to shake off the sense of unease he felt.

Takigawa furrowed his brows and raised his hand with one finger sticking up. "First of all, I do think this is your brother. I can't discern any signs of possession and he seems to know you intimately." Naru's shoulders noticeably lost tension as another spiritualist verified the conclusion he had already come to.

The long-haired monk continued, "Secondly, I don't think it's the ink that is directly responsible for these discolorations. They are weird and feel eerie like-" he paused for a minute, his tongue pressing against the roof of his mouth as he searched for the right words, "like the denseness from a ritual item."

Lin, who had silently been paying attention to the whole conversation, frowned and cocked his head. He wasn't sure how he had missed that, but now that he was looking for it, he could nearly taste the heavy flavor of ritual magic surrounding Eugene. Lin crossed his arms and leveled an unimpressed look at Eugene, "You didn't think to mention you had written a ritual on your skin? That would have been helpful to know yesterday."

"It wasn't supposed to be a ritual and I didn't know they were stuck on my skin until I took a shower this morning," Eugene said sullenly. He took his arms back from the monk and crossed them over his chest.

"What do they say?" Naru asked as he crossed over to look at his brother's arm. Now that he was up close, he could see the silvery marks for himself. However, he couldn't read Kanji or Sanskrit and he hadn't been aware that his brother had picked up that skill on his trip. He did, however, remember the strange glow surrounding his brother's arms right before Eugene had started coughing up water from his lungs. Oliver sat back down, took out his black notebook and a pen, and began writing down the details and theories that the others mentioned as well as any known facts.

Eugene leaned back on his heels and grimaced already anticipating the backlash his next statement would generate. "I don't exactly know. One of them was supposed to be a prayer to help summon trapped spirits and the other was a cleansing prayer."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Naru abruptly stopped writing and glared at his brother. He tapped his foot impatiently on the wooden deck and pressed his pen into the paper so hard that it tore the thick parchment paper he favored in his notebooks.

Eugene ran a hand through his hair and let out a low hiss as the full force of Oliver's outrage slammed through him. "Well, I was copying them down from an older scroll but, I don't know how to read in either of those languages."

"You don't know how to write in either of those languages either. You write like a kindergartener with a broken hand. How do you even read your own writing?" Bou-san injected incredulously.

"His handwriting is atrocious in English too," Naru said as he ground his molars together.

Naru's eyes flashed as he turned to fully face his brother and scowled. "Of all the asinine things to do why in the world would you write something unknown on your own skin?"

Mai tucked the unease and discomfort that was boiling under her skin into the back of her mind since she was almost positive that it was coming from Eugene's emotional state rather than hers. It was a strange feeling, as Mai had never had someone else's feelings bleed through her while she was awake. There were feelings during her death visions, but never while she was conscious and with a person who was alive. She hoped it wore off soon as it was just too disorienting to have to separate what she was feeling versus what someone else was feeling.

Mai winced sympathetically at Gene, she had written an innumerable amount of notes on her hands at the end of class when she ran out of paper or the teacher spoke after she had put away all her things. Granted she wasn't a renowned paranormal researcher writing potentially dangerous things on her skin but, she could see herself doing something exactly like that without thinking about it. She made a mental note to never, ever write on herself during a case, especially in front of Naru, that would embarrass her for sure. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she was even more foolish than he already did.

Mai shivered and cuddled into her blanket further. The air seemed even colder than it had just a minute ago. She picked at the lint on the blanket and cleared her throat. "I think it's more important to figure out what was written than to argue about something that's already been done."

Oliver closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He could feel his PK going haywire and his control slipping over his abilities. He counted to four and then exhaled slowly. He was still angry at how irresponsible his brother had been. He could have cursed himself. The ritual on his arms could have very well caused his death or come with serious consequences. Just thinking about it was making his blood boil again. He took one more deep breath and held it for four seconds before releasing it. "You are right. That is more important right now, but we will be revisiting it," he said sharply and no one in the group dared to gainsay the researcher while he had such a frosty look on his face.

Takigawa stared at the marks and frowned. He didn't translate languages much anymore since he was only a part-time monk and was more focused on his music career. It just wasn't something that came up often enough for him to practice his skills. "My Sanskrit is too rusty for a full translation but I could take a copy up to Mt. Kouya next time I go and see if the Monks there can recognize it or provide a translation and hopefully an explanation too."

Yasuhara grabbed one of Monk's hands and cradled them between his own. "Don't worry my love, I shall help you research. We can start tonight, over coffee, after everyone else is asleep." He winked flirtatiously at the older man.

"Young man! Stop teasing me like that," Monk stuttered out as he yanked his hand out of the other boy's grasp.

The high schooler grinned mischievously and pushed his glasses up the ridge of his nose, "You don't have to be self-conscious about our love. These are our friends. I'm sure they will accept us if we give them time." He turned toward Naru, who was unamused by his antics, and said, "If we take some pictures of the Kanji, I will try to decipher it in my spare time."

Before Naru could respond or scold his brother and the monk, an older man's voice called out, "Uh. Excuse me..." The whole team looked over toward the speaker. He and another older man were walking from the direction of the woods. They were both wrinkled and the one who had spoken was partially bent over with age. He continued, "Are you from Shibuya Psychic Research?"

"Yes," Oliver answered curiously. He stood up from his chair and tucked his notebook back into his pocket

The old man spoke again casting an assessing eye over the group, clearly looking for the leader of the group. "I hear you people are psychic?"

"Something like that," Oliver said noncommittally. Gene walked up to stand beside his brother in solidarity. While Oliver looked stoic, his brother adopted a charming half-smile.

The old man blinked. "And you are?"

"I'm the person in charge of Shibuya Psychic Research," Oliver said firmly.

"Oh! You're awfully young..." the older man spoke again.

Oliver stared directly at the man as he spoke. "Thank you. What did you need?"

Mai hid a grin. No matter how many times he did that the person on the receiving end always looked baffled. Naru was hilarious as long as he wasn't terrorizing her.

"I'm sorry to bother you when you are busy... but I have something we need help with."

Mai and Takigawa exchanged looks. Bou-san murmured, "A job?"

"Even out here," Mai said curiously as she looked up from her pile of blankets.

"What is it?" Oliver asked. Gene put his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Naru" Lin interjected.

"I don't mind," he said holding up a hand.

"But-"

"We're just going to be waiting around with nothing to do. Luella texted me this morning and they are delayed due to a severe thunderstorm. It will likely be a few days before they can reschedule their connecting flight." He nodded toward the two older gentlemen, "Please tell us about your problem."

Gene crossed his arms over his chest and grumbled under his breath, "That would have been nice to know earlier."

Naru shot a warning glance at his brother before turning his attention back to the potential client. "Come inside and we can discuss your case," he said. The older man who spoke and his assistant looked at each other and then nodded to each other before beginning to follow Oliver.

Oliver barked out, "Eugene, Mai, and Lin inside with me. The rest of you stay outside and don't cause any trouble. Take inventory of what equipment we have if you think you won't break anything."

Mai startled and struggled to get out of her cocoon of blankets. The sudden change from sitting to standing made her head spin. She closed her eyes against the stars in her eyes and took a step forward. She tripped on the corner of the blanket still wrapped partly around her foot, but before she could fall Monk reached out and steadied her, his hands warm and comforting like family.

"Thank you," she murmured.

"You're welcome. Be more careful Mai-chan. Are you sure you don't want to stay out here and rest? Surely Naru can handle this without you." He asked quietly.

She looked between the chair and Oliver's dark head disappearing into the cabin. Her heart squeezed at seeing him walk away from her and faced with the two options it wasn't a difficult question. She didn't have much time left with him before he inevitably left, back to his research, back to Britain, back to his home, but away from her.

"Are you coming, Mai?" Naru called from the doorway. He had turned around and was leaning against the door frame, his expression unreadable.

"Give me a second Naru," she said with a conciliatory smile. He clenched and unclenched a fist and then nodded before catching his brother's eye and heading into the cabin with the client.

Eugene walked over to stand before the slight girl. He did not doubt that the look Oliver gave him was a command to escort Mai in. He wished that his brother would get over his aversion of being close to others because then he could have escorted Mai in by himself. Gene waited while Takigawa cast a considering gaze between him and his retreating brother. Whatever conclusion the Monk drew seemed to satisfy him as he handed Mai carefully off to Eugene, who wrapped his arm around her to catch her if she stumbled again.

As the bare skin on his wrist brushed against hers the connection between them sang with each other's emotions just as strongly as they had the first time they had touched just that morning. They both tensed imperceptibly at the renewal of the connection. Previously, while the connection wasn't gone, it had settled into something he could mostly ignore. Eugene tightened his grip around her, both to steel himself against the onslaught of her rioting emotions and disguise the fact that anything was amiss. They made their way into the cabin and as they crossed the threshold Eugene said, "We'll let Oliver know about this the first chance we get," just loud enough for only Mai to hear.

Loud enough for everyone else outside he said, "Come on, Mai, let's get you inside to my blockheaded brother."

"Thanks and sorry for the imposition," Mai murmured as she tried to straighten up and walk without leaning into Eugene. She knew Oliver didn't care to be touched and she wasn't sure if it was a shared trait between the brothers or not yet.

She didn't understand how she always ended up in these types of situations. She glared suspiciously in the direction that Naru had disappeared to, she didn't remember these types of accidents ever happening to her before she met the dark-haired researcher: she had never been clumsy or prone to danger if she had the government would never have allowed to live on her own sans a guardian. She was extremely self-sufficient and despised having people fuss over her.

Eugene glanced over at the young woman on his arm and wondered what she was thinking about. He had exactly zero guesses based on the dissonance between her words and the emotions flashing rapidly through the link. He would have to apologize to Noll, if he switched his emotions half as much as Mai cycled through hers, then it was a miracle he hadn't driven his more stoic brother absolutely insane.

Oliver glanced up, seeming to subconsciously feel something amiss. Mai smoothed out the lines of her face and tacked on a half-hearted smile, but her wide eyes still showcased the turmoil that Gene could feel through whatever link they shared. She would have fooled him though if he couldn't feel her.

Naru, his idiot scientist brother, met Mai's eyes and raised an eyebrow, clearly asking her some variation of "Is everything alright?"

Mai nodded and the sharp edges of her emotions faded. For as frustrating as Naru was he always seemed to do something thoughtful that took the wind out of her sails.

As they reached the table the others were at, Eugene took a stab at what he thought was bothering the young woman on his arm and said, "There's no reason to be sorry. However else would I be able to escort the fairest lady around?" He winked at her and Mai was so dumbfounded that it took her a minute to realize he had helped her into the seat next to Naru. She flushed at the seating arrangement and quickly averted her eyes to her lap.

Naru scowled at his brother before assessing the girl next to him. She was still exhausted and too pale, except for the pink blush his brother had put on her face. He clenched his fist under the table, it was his failure that resulted in her poor health, so he supposed he should be grateful his brother was trying to cheer her up, but he wasn't.

Oliver pulled himself together and addressed the clients across the table, "What was it you needed our help with?"

Chapter Text

Mai slid out of the back seat of the SPR van, grasping the frame of the vehicle as she stepped down onto the ground to ensure she stayed steady on her feet. She blinked back the splotches in her vision and the slight dizziness that accompanied them. It was only yesterday morning that she was discharged from the hospital, and everything seemed to make her tired.

In fact, she had nearly fallen asleep during the meeting with the client yesterday. She had been to the point where she could see and hear that the mayor was talking but none of the words were registering and for a moment, she could have sworn that she was actually in class listening to her teacher drone on rather than in that little cabin in the woods. When the meeting had ended she was pulled out of her daze and she hurriedly imitated the rest of her colleagues in standing politely as the Mayor and his assistant made their goodbyes and left. She didn’t remember much of the case details but knew better than to ask Naru or Lin what she’d missed.

Mai tilted her head back to take in the entirety of the schoolhouse they were hired to investigate. It was in surprisingly good condition after being abandoned for a few years. It was two stories tall and none of the windows on either floor had been busted out as she would expect from kids exploring or playing around the building. There were a few cracked glass panes but nothing any small critters could use to scurry their way into the building. There was no visible graffiti and if she hadn’t been told otherwise before they took the case, she would have thought that classes were still being held there.

“Since the case details are vague and we don’t have as much equipment as needed for an investigation this size, I want the microphones set up around the perimeter of the building. We will strictly monitor for the day to see if this case is even worth our time,” Naru instructed briskly.

Mai went to unload the equipment with the others when Naru’s voice cut through her fatigued compliance, “Not you, Mai. Come here.”

She furrowed her brow and stepped closer to him. She was used to the curt orders from Naru, but it was unusual for her boss to pull her from setup duty. She couldn’t remember him ever doing so before.

“Yes, Naru?” she asked cautiously, hoping that he didn’t have something worse planned for her to do. Mai wouldn’t put it past him to stick her with an odious or tedious job.

He gestured to the spot next to him. “Sit down. You aren’t to do anything strenuous during this case and you will stay with me, Gene, or Lin at all times. No wandering off by yourself.”

She remained standing. “What? Why?” she asked taken completely off-guard. A gentle warmth bloomed in her chest. Was this an indication that he cared what happened to her?

“You just got out of the hospital yesterday and you still look sickly. It would be annoying to have to track you down and take you back to the hospital if you wander off and overexert yourself enough to collapse again,” he stated with cool indifference.

The spark of hope in her chest rapidly extinguished itself. Mai crossed her arms and huffed. “Fine, I won’t wander off alone. Are the others sufficient babysitters too?”

“No, as your employer, I’m responsible for your welfare and I don’t trust the rest of them to be properly vigilant,” he said absently and turned away from her to check the rest of the SPR team’s progress. They didn’t have enough equipment to spare if some of the members started up their regular unprofessional shenanigans.

“I can take care of myself,” Mai said, aiming a sharp glare his way. After nearly a year of working for Naru, she had thought they were friends, but she’d been thoroughly disabused of that notion several times over the last week or so. It stung that he could so easily make her feel like a little child and the casual way he seemed to be able to dismiss her as nothing more than his irritating assistant didn’t help.

She thought they had made progress in understanding each other over the last several days. She and Naru had hardly argued or squabbled while waiting on the dive team or since she had gotten out of the hospital, and she had felt his appreciation when she had anticipated his need for tea or quiet companionship on several occasions even if he hadn’t said the words aloud. Clearly, she had been imagining that progress or they had taken a giant step backward because they were back to arguing again.

He turned back to her and raised a brow at her outburst. Oliver hadn’t expected her to be happy about his instructions, but he hadn’t expected her to be upset at having the chance to get out of the grunt work that she normally complained about, and as far as he knew, she didn’t actually have a problem with Lin, Gene, or himself so he wasn’t sure why she would object to being in their company during the case. “I disagree and since I’m the boss you’ll do what I say. When the rest of them get back you can have your choice of babysitters out of the three of us that I’ve listed.”

“Fine. Let me get my bag from the van.” She sighed heavily but ultimately didn’t have the energy to argue with Naru. Her shoulders dropped and she uncrossed her arms before striding the short distance to the car to grab her school bag. She could feel Naru’s heavy stare on her back the whole way. In the distance, the others' bright laughter rang out. She plopped herself down on the building’s stairs, several feet away from Naru’s position, and pulled out her schoolwork. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Naru open his black notebook and begin reading and writing more notes.

She resolved to ignore her boss and keep his eagle-eyed attention off of her. That resolution turned out to be easier than she expected as she started her math homework. She’d missed the last several days of work and while her school allowed her to miss class time, she still had to turn in all her assignments. This was the last of her assignments and then she would be two days ahead. Tomorrow was a school day, but she didn’t think that they would be back in time for class. Even so, there was no telling how involved this case would be so it was better to get her work done ahead of time instead of showing up to school exhausted and behind on her work.

“If that’s the sin then the cosine of A is that number over this one,” she muttered to herself as she tapped her pencil on the corresponding parts of the diagram in the book in her lap.

Naru sighed. “Do you have to be so noisy at everything you do?”

She looked up from her textbook and stared at him until her brain processed what he said. “Yes, and I have three more problems after this one,” she replied tartly.

It served him right. He was the one who decided that she was to sit with him while they waited on the others. He was in for a very long case if he was determined to keep her within eyesight the whole time. If it wasn’t so depressing that she drove the man she was in love with mad just by existing in his space, she would have laughed at his predicament.

“Are you muttering because you need help?” he asked, his pen stilling over his notes as he looked at her over his own work.

She cocked her head. It seemed almost like he was offering his help with her work albeit in a very patronizing way. “No, I only have a couple of problems left. They are just tricky, but I can manage on my own,” she answered evenly, determined to not let him rile her up since he did seem to be offering her his assistance.

“Good, I wouldn’t want your idiocy to interfere with my important work on the case. I’m sure it’s a lost cause but do try to be quieter,” he said drolly and ducked his head to bury his grin at the nearly feral growl his assistant emitted. He bit his tongue, barely smothering his urge to comment about her animal instincts and tendencies.

She glared at him and his stupid black case notebook. That rude, arrogant narcissist!

She dropped her gaze back down at the paper she was writing her math work on and nearly whined. The conversation had interrupted her concentration enough that she forgot where she was in the problem and now, she would have to start it all over again. She gathered up the dregs of her focus and started back on the last few problems.

Mai was tucking her book back into her school bag when the others came back from setting up the equipment. Mai shared a grin with Yasuhara, judging by Ayako’s stomping and furious eyes as well as the way Bou-san was rubbing the back of his head they’d had another argument while they were gone.

There was a pit of worry in her stomach and since she wasn’t feeling particularly anxious about this case yet, Mai darted her gaze to Eugene to find him staring up at the schoolhouse. She stood and sidled up next to the boy whose trepidation she could still faintly feel even though they had been careful not to touch each other since yesterday.

“Do you see anything?” she asked lowly, aware that Naru was watching them surreptitiously. She wondered if Naru was just watching to make sure she listened to him or if he suspected that she and Gene were keeping something from him. She had meant to tell him about the strange connection between her and Gene yesterday, but Naru had disappeared after the meeting with the client and the other SPR irregulars had kept her busy right up until she had gone to bed directly after dinner on Ayako’s orders.

Eugene smiled wanly at the girl beside him. “No, I haven’t opened up my abilities and I’m not sure I want to, yet.”

“Wait, you can stop sensing things?” she asked completely baffled.

He raised a brow. “Of course. Walking around all the time sensing things and using my abilities would be exhausting.”

She scowled down at the ground. “Is that why I’m always falling asleep everywhere?”

“Falling asl-,” he started incredulously. He pinched the bridge of his nose in a motion more suited to his brother. “I don’t know. Maybe, but you should ask Noll since he probably has a better sense of what type of abilities you possess.”

“Oh,” she said glumly. Why hadn’t anyone told her before?

“It sounds like no one taught you how to control the flow of information you get.”

She scratched the back of her neck as she replied, “Ah, not really. At least I don’t think so?”

Eugene wanted to beat his head against something or at least smack some sense into his brother. It could be dangerous to be a psychic without any control and Noll, of all people, knew that. Having her abilities constantly on like that was probably lighting her up like a beacon to any nearby spirits and putting her in danger. While his problems hadn’t been quite as bad as his brother’s PK issues as a child, he’d had several nasty encounters with spirits before he’d learned methods to protect himself.

He knew that his brother had been grieving but, how hard would it have been to spend a few minutes a day instructing his assistant or at least pawning it off on Lin? Why had Lin not intervened either? He knew they hadn’t realized the extent of her gifts, but even a little display of them ought to have prompted them to teach her some meditation and visualization techniques to help ground her.

Gene sighed but offered her a small comforting smile. “We’ll work on it after this case. If I can’t help you then either Lin or Oliver will be able to.”

She gave him a puzzled look that he couldn’t decipher the meaning of, but she nodded slowly in agreement. Mai brightened a little bit, realizing that his offer to help her meant that at the very least, Gene didn’t intend to completely lose contact with her after they left the country. She could keep up with emails or phone calls and perhaps learn how to at least limit the intrusiveness of her abilities.

Mai grumbled as she heard Naru order Yasuhara and Bou-san to gather information from the village and pick up some more supplies. Naru wasn’t assigning either of them a babysitter. Luckily, neither Yasuhara nor Bou-san seemed to mind his brisk tone or orders and left in Bou-san's car with their normal cheer.

Soon after they left dark clouds rolled in overhead and Mai shivered against a particularly cold gust of wind. Naru snapped his book shut and held out a hand to help Mai up from where she was resting. Another gust of wind ripped through the schoolyard and Naru sighed before taking his coat off and dropping it over Mai’s shoulders.

“Gather the equipment and bring it in. It looks like it’s going to rain,” he ordered. The others looked worriedly up at the sky and then hurried off to gather the equipment. Mai went to follow them, but Naru caught her elbow, stopping her abruptly. She turned her startled eyes up at him.

He shook his head and said, “Not you, Mai. Wrap that around you and let’s go inside.”

“I’m not that cold,” she said. The wind ruffled her skirt and a shiver ran through her. He raised a brow at her and smirked. She scowled at him but ultimately complied.

He helped her as she petulantly shoved her hands through the sleeves. He turned her around so that she was facing him, tugged on the coat to straighten it, and then buttoned up the coat. His jacket was a little big on her, but there was something strangely pleasing about seeing her wrapped up in his clothing for warmth. She was staring up at him again with large, bewildered eyes and a soft flush on her cheeks.

He cleared his throat. “Don’t make this a habit or I’m going to start mandating you wear pants on our cases.”

She went right back to scowling ferociously at him. He hid a smile at her predictability.

Her demeanor fell. “I should think that you won’t have to worry about it after this case,” she said. She turned away from him and walked up the steps and into the schoolhouse without a backward glance.

He blinked in confusion at her words as he rubbed absentmindedly at his chest. He didn’t like watching her walk away from him and especially when she was clearly upset.

It took him a moment to realize what she had meant. He'd told her after he found his brother’s body that he’d be closing down the office and going back home. Something about that didn’t sit right with him now. Besides, nothing had turned out as he’d planned. For one, his brother was alive and now he had a mystery to solve, one that may very well involve her.

He followed the slim girl into the building. The others rushed in soon after with microphones and their coats tugged up over their heads. They shook the few raindrops that had accumulated on them off. As the last person through the door, John closed the door behind him.

Naru glanced up at their entrance and counted the microphones they had brought in. Once he had accounted for all the microphones, he looked at the group dispassionately. “We’ll wait out the storm here until Takigawa-san and Yasuhara-san return.”

Ayako brushed her wet bangs back from where they had been plastered to her forehead. “Guess we won’t be investigating much today.”

“The storm would cause too much interference with just the microphones. There should be a few handheld cameras in the van. It’s not my preferred method, but it will have to do for today.” Naru answered.

“I’ll go grab them,” Lin said as he grasped the car keys in his pocket and made for the door. He pushed the door, but it didn’t budge so he tried pulling it towards him, only the door still didn’t move, not even a little bit. He frowned and tried again with more force.

“Noll, the door won’t open,” Lin stated.

“Would you like Gene and me to break it down?” he asked dryly. He already knew what Lin’s answer would be.

Lin shot him a dirty look. “Absolutely not! After what happened you need to test your abilities out in a controlled environment first. We don’t even know if Gene can still channel your power.”

“Fine.” Oliver sighed. “Let’s look for a window first then.”

But they tried the windows and none would open nor would any amount of force be sufficient to break the windows. Lin vehemently protested the use of the twins' PK and while Gene agreed easily, Oliver gracelessly acquiesced after Lin pointed out that Takigawa and Yasuhara should be back shortly. In the meantime, they set up a temporary to base and covered it in Ayako’s protection charms for their safety.

Mai tugged at one of Masako’s long sleeves gently from her seated position on the floor. “Hey, Masako. Can you see anything here?”

“This place feels lonely. There is something here, but they are very good at hiding,” the doll-looking girl answered softly.

Mai pursed her lips. “Oh, that’s too bad. It would have been useful to know what we were dealing with.”

Masako turned up her pert nose and crossed her arms. “What are you sensing? Oh wait, you haven’t fallen asleep on the job. At least I don’t have to be asleep to be useful.”

Mai ground her teeth together. “I didn’t mean it like that. I can tell this place feels lonely too, but it’s not my fault I’m most useful asleep.”

“That’s the only work you are to do while we are here, Mai,” Oliver cut into their argument sharply.

She pouted. “I know. I know. You already told me to take it easy.”

“If I catch you doing anything else I will dock your pay,” he warned, meeting her eyes with his intense stare. Mai fought to not get caught up in his exotic gaze and broke eye contact.

Once her brain registered his words she grinned and cheerfully said, “Ha! Normally you threaten the opposite- that if I fall asleep, you’ll dock my pay.”

“That was before I knew you were being useful and dreaming about the cases. Especially since you weren’t forthcoming about the information you were gaining,” he answered matter-of-factly.

“Well, there was a nice, smiling version of you in them so I thought I was delusional,” she griped, cuddling into his jacket that was still wrapped around her. It was warm and smelled like him with notes of bergamot and ozone. She hid the grin that played on her lips. He smelled like the tea she brewed for him and the energy that buzzed chaotically under his skin.

Gene was holding back laughter at his brother’s expense as he asked, “No one has told me what talents you actually possess, Mai. What is it that you can do?”

She scowled and grumbled, “Apparently sleep and dream of you.”

Her eyes widened. “Wait! No! Not like that,” she said frantically waving her hands and fighting down the rampant blush that was spreading over her cheeks. Mai slumped down with a groan and put her head in her hands as everyone laughed. Even Lin was laughing quietly into his fist.

Naru was still smirking as he interrupted Mai’s embarrassed sulking, “We’ve confirmed that she has post-cognitive dreams, an intuition for danger, and has, on at least one occasion, demonstrated some astral projection capabilities.”

Mai looked up through her spread fingers and intoned suspiciously, “You never describe my ESP that nicely.”

“Was that too challenging for your simple brain? I figured you had embarrassed yourself enough in the last few minutes, but I can go back to describing it as heightened animal senses if you’d like,” he intoned.

Eugene stared at his brother incredulously. Was he trying to flirt with her? No wonder she was calling him Naru the narcissist. He apparently didn’t like her attention on anyone else, but his flirting needed serious work. He wondered if Noll even knew that was what he was doing or if he realized that he even liked the girl beyond just tolerating her presence. Eugene had never seen his brother try to flirt with any girl before. He’d seen him brushoff dozens of others by being tactless and short, but even though Noll was still being condescending, this was more playful than the normal brushoffs he gave other people and clearly designed to provoke Mai into engaging and extending the interaction with him rather than end the conversation.

“No, I prefer when you call it intuition,” Mai pouted, crossing her arms and ducking her chin to her chest. Out of the corner of his eye, Eugene noted that Masako motioned at Mai. Just a tilt of her head and a ‘go on’ wave with one of her pale hands, but Mai subtly shook her head. Masako scowled but didn’t push or speak up. He wondered what that was about. Noll, of course, didn’t see. He’d have to remember to ask or get his brother to later. Noll might already have some idea what the interaction between the two teenage girls was about or at least have better luck coaxing the answer out since he was more familiar with Mai.

“That’s a weird cocktail of skills,” Eugene said, noting that Oliver left out any mention of the possibility of PK they suspected she might have. As far as he knew, his brother hadn’t yet talked to Mai about what had happened the day he’d been revived and she’d suffered a stress-induced heart attack. It was unlike Oliver to wait this long to interrogate someone but perhaps he was trying to make sure Mai was well enough to have such a potentially distressing conversation.

She nodded and with a resigned sigh said, “Yes, and aside from the intuition, I have to be asleep for them to work.”

The precognitive dreams were probably similar enough to Oliver’s psychometry that he would be able to assist her. The ESP was something they could both help her hone, she probably just needed confidence and practice telling between what was something only she could discern and what everyone else was limited to. However, the astral projection was a strange skill and not one that either he or Noll had practiced helping anyone with. Lin might be the best bet for that particular ability or he might know someone else who could help with the projecting.  “Cheer up, Mai. Sounds like you probably just need practice and training.”

“Oh, probably,” she said with a smile that she knew didn’t reach her eyes. After all, they’d be gone soon and she had a feeling that the type of help she needed would be far more than could be provided from a distance. It’s why she wasn’t going to ask about the time she had astral projected her key to Masako on the last case. The twins and Lin were going to go home soon so there was no point. She would just have to find a way to manage on her own. She had been managing on her own for years at this point and she’d figure out how to manage this too. If she got truly desperate she’d see if Monk or his family had any contacts that could offer her a bit of guidance.

Oliver narrowed his eyes at his young assistant. Her words and expression weren’t matching up again and he didn’t know why yet. Although she often held information back, her emotions and the reasons behind them were normally easy to decipher. The fact that he couldn’t discern what was causing the discrepancy between her words and her emotions aggravated him. He made a note in his field book on the occurrence just in case her strange behavior was case related.

He closed his notebook and stood up. “We might as well investigate since we are locked in here. Everyone should stay together.”

When he brushed past Mai he murmured, “Remember the rules. Stay close to Lin, Gene, or me and I’ll dock your pay if you overdo it.”

“I remember,” she huffed and refrained from rolling her eyes.

The classroom where the desks were full of student possessions and the blackboard had a date written on it just waiting for the children to come back the next day sent a shiver down Mai’s spine. Only the accumulation of dust hinted that it had been years rather than days since there were students in the school. The tufts of animal fur and filthy aquatic tanks in the next classroom only served to further unsettle her. The school felt haunted in a way that had nothing to do with spirits. There was something empty and sad about the space that had been caught and suspended in time.

Despite the fact that all of them were diligently looking for clues, everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at the ceiling when there was a loud, sudden bang from the second floor.

Lin met Naru’s eyes. “I’ll go check it out.”

Mai’s stomach tightened into knots and she stepped closer to Naru. She didn’t think Lin should leave but by the time she had decided to speak up, Lin was already at the top of the staircase. Mai swallowed her protest and watched the stairs unrelentingly, waiting for Lin to reappear while the others chatted around her.

By the time children’s laughter floated down the empty hallway, Mai’s unease had only grown and cumulated into a sickening sense of wrongness, and she nearly raced up the stairs ahead of the rest of the group. Only Naru’s sudden grip on her wrist and his long strides kept her from breaking the rules he had set for her.

There was fresh blood on the floor only a few steps away from the top of the stairwell and Lin was nowhere to be seen. Ayako bent down and examined the blood on the floor. “It’s very little blood. If it’s from Lin-san then it is from a minor injury. There’s too little blood to be from a head injury or from a serious wound,” she stated though it didn’t change the grim countenances on anyone’s faces. You didn’t need to bleed in order to die. Lin was the most knowledgeable and defensively capable member of their group and it was a very bad sign that he was missing. It meant that whatever kind of spirit or entity they were dealing with was immensely dangerous.

Chapter Text

Lin’s disappearance and apparent injury alarmed every one of the group of investigators that remained stuck in the schoolhouse, even John’s pleasant mien was scrunched up in worry. None of them could remember a case over the last year where Lin was the one in danger, normally it was Mai or one of the other girls in danger. Another bout of strange noises and faint laughter rang in the distance. Oliver hadn’t let go of Mai’s wrist yet and he tugged Mai between him and Gene without fanfare.

Mai was too busy staring at the blood on the wooden floor panels with a lost look on her face to notice Oliver’s gentle maneuvering. She murmured, “How could they be so lonely when there’s so many of them?”

“So many what, Mai?” Oliver coaxed lowly, his gaze cutting to her immediately at the unusual intonation of her voice. He’d never seen her gather information like this, not while she was awake. It could be nothing or it could be a vital piece of information. His brother was right that he should have helped her with her abilities as soon as he became aware of them, even if he had been hiding his identity and thought her skills minor.

She sighed out, “Children. There’s so many children.”

Mai turned her glassy, cinnamon-colored gaze up to his. The dazed look cleared after a moment and her voice wobbled as she asked, “Naru, how are we going to find him?”

He didn’t bother to ask her to explain her previous statement, if Mai even remembered what she had said she would likely just brush it off like all the other case information she had neglected to tell him over the last year or so, but from the way she’d just skipped over the information he doubted she knew she had spoken. 

He shot a look at his brother, hoping that his twin had caught what the girl between them had said. Eugene was already staring at him with wide, worried eyes. Clearly, he couldn’t verify the information, and he was concerned about the way Mai’s anilities were controlling her rather than the other way around. Oliver pressed his lips together. He wasn’t precisely sure he cared for how quickly Gene had taken to his young assistant. Perhaps he should just be glad that there was someone else capable of looking after the tiny danger magnet.

Oliver was already contemplating the best way to find Lin and keep the rest of them out of danger as well. His jaw tightened and he clenched his fists. He didn’t appreciate the fact that none of the details of this case matched what the mayor had told him yesterday and without that information it was difficult to know exactly how much danger the group was in. He didn’t get a chance to answer Mai’s question though because John suddenly brightened up.

“Bou-san and Yasuhara are back,” John said, gesturing out the window nearest them.

“Downstairs everyone. Stay together and hurry. We can’t let them close that door,” Naru said, marching his team down the stairs and toward the outside door without a backwards glance.

The others recognized the urgency of the task and rushed after him. The hallway grew cold against Mai’s bare legs, and she couldn’t find it in herself to be shocked when their progress was impeded by a tall bookshelf that had been moved in front of the doorway that led out of the main stairwell. They’d been through that doorway no more than ten minutes earlier and unless someone was playing a very mean trick that meant a spirit had moved the shelving.

Oliver placed a hand on the bookcase and willed a little bit of his PK to move it, not enough to hurt himself or enough to need Eugene’s assistance, but the bookshelf didn’t even budge. He glared at the offending item. There was too much resistance from the spirits that had trapped them that he wouldn’t be able to overcome it by himself and still be able to move the heavy bookcase out of the way. 

And he did, unfortunately, agree with Lin that testing out whether his brother was still able to catch and amplify his own PK abilities on a case where they couldn’t easily get to a hospital if something went wrong was a bad idea. However, if he just disrupted the hold the spirits had then he and the others might be able to physically move the bookshelf out of the way. He was careful not to let anyone see as he channeled a spark of PK through his fingertips and slowly increased the amount until he could feel the hold the spirits had on it break. Oliver felt more than saw Gene’s gaze boring into the back of his head.

“John, see if you can help me push this out of the way,” Oliver ordered, discretely wiping his clammy hands on his trousers.

The bookcase, with all its heavy textbooks, was too heavy for the two of them to slide over, but with Gene’s added assistance they did manage to knock the bookcase over. Oliver climbed over the offending shelf first and gestured for Mai to come through. He fought to control his heavy breathing and by sheer force of will managed to get it under control before he reached for Mai. He grabbed her hand while Gene put his hands on her waist to help lift her through, before Gene hopped through the doorway as well.

Eugene offered his hand to Masako with John guiding her steps from the rear. While Masako wasn’t ill like Mai, her kimono made it difficult for her to climb over the bookcase without assistance. John was through next and then, in a hurry not to be left behind,  he grasped the shrine maiden’s hand without glancing back and they hurried off after the others.

By the time the team reached Yasuhara and Bou-san at the entrance, the door was already shut firmly behind them, the sound of the rainstorm muffled by the sealed doors. Mai groaned lowly and from the corner of her eye she could see that Naru’s already taciturn expression became even more grim. 

The monk turned to look over the out of breath group that had rushed into the room with a raised brow. Then his eyes narrowed and he asked, “Where’s Lin-san and Ayako?”

The five ghost hunters that had originally stayed behind all looked back toward where they had come from. Ayako was nowhere in sight, nor could they hear her heels tapping on the wooden floors anywhere near them.

Mai hummed to herself. The rain was coming down hard. It was sure to be muddy and a miserable walk after class if she’d forgotten to pack her umbrella this morning.

Mai was beginning to feel a little lightheaded, but didn’t want to draw attention to herself so she studiously ignored the sensation in the hopes that it would go away if she took a couple of deep breaths and stood still for long enough.

Thankfully, her jacket was warm enough that she wouldn’t be cold on the bus.

Naru stepped up closer to her and rested his hand on the small of her back, adding a little extra support to her frame. He disguised the action by slipping his hand underneath his coat that she was still wearing. The warmth of his hand seeped through her thin t-shirt and she suppressed the shiver that attempted to rack her figure.

They would all go together with sensei.

If she wasn’t so cold and tired she was sure Naru’s actions would have caused her to blush furiously, but as it was she couldn’t work up the energy to do anything but lean into his side and his steady hand just long enough catch her breath and chase the dizziness away. It helped enough that after a few moments her head stopped spinning and she could focus back in on the conversation her teammates were having.

“She was right behind us a minute ago,” Masako murmured, raising her kimono sleeve to cover the worried twist to her mouth.  Her elegant sleeve didn’t cover the anxiety swirling in her dove grey eyes.

The sound of muffled children’s laughter bounced off the walls seeming to come from the hallway they had escaped from. Monk whipped his head in the direction of the laughter and started toward the sound with an unyielding expression on his face.

“Takigawa, wait,” Naru said dispassionately, but it was enough to stop the monk in his tracks. He looked over his shoulder at his young boss, his stare fierce and the set of his mouth unyielding.

When Oliver knew he had the older man’s attention he continued, “It’s locked us inside here and it seems to be trying to pick us off one at a time. It’s best if we all stay together while you fill us in on any information that you learned in town. It appears there is more going on than what the mayor informed us about.”

At the disgruntled look on the monk’s face, Eugene cut in and offered gently, “We can all look for Matsuzaki-san and Lin together while we discuss anything you learned.”

Monk nodded and then waved a hand toward Yasuhara, who had a thoughtful expression on his face. Yasuhara pushed his glasses up onto the bridge of his nose. “I’ll tell you what happened while we walk.”

The group of investigators started back toward where they had lost track of the priestess. There wasn’t a peep nor any obvious signs of her or Lin anywhere, even the blood on the floor had mysteriously disappeared.

Yasuhara began soon afterward, “You’re right Big Boss, that there’s more to this case then the mayor mentioned. In addition to the hikers the mayor informed us were missing, a child went missing recently and neither the child nor their body has been recovered.”

“I can feel a couple of weak presences, but I think they are the hikers. There are others that have a strong attachment to the building, but I can’t get anything more about them because their auras are chaotic and they are very skilled at hiding,” Masako said, wringing her hands in her long sleeves, “I can’t feel Lin or Ayako’s presence either. It is like they are being contained.”

Yasuhara gave a Masako a reassuring glance and then continued solemnly, “The mayor also lied about the reason that the schoolhouse was abandoned. Very few of the townspeople wanted to discuss it, but while it is true that the population of school aged children had been decreasing before the school closed down, the event that ultimately closed the school was a landslide five years ago that covered a bus full of students. One body was recovered, but they stopped looking before the rest could be found.”

Mai covered her mouth with her hand to hold back her gasp while her eyes filled up with tears. Those poor children all lost and their bodies never recovered by their parents, still stuck in the mountain that had buried them alive. Through her blurry vision she noted that Masako, John, and Gene were similarly affected by the story but that Naru looked quietly furious. Mai was thankful that she didn’t trip while her sight was impaired. In the mood her boss was in she would have surely gotten scolded for inattention or clumsiness.

They reached the classroom where they had heard the laughter of the children after they noticed Ayako’s disappearance. On the blackboard written in block letters was: Please welcome our new students Lin Koujo and Matsuzaki Ayako.

Oliver glowered at the board, his PK thrumming under his skin at the apparent taunt, and ordered, “Search the school again, room by room. Stay together and this time check for abnormalities in the floors and walls.” 

Mai pointed to a corner in one of the last classrooms on this floor that they were currently searching. “Why is that corner swarming with bugs and so dirty?” she asked, her nose crinkling in revulsion. While all the rooms had a thick layer of dust in them, that particular corner was absolutely disgusting.

Bou-san and Naru walked over to the corner and after investigating for a moment, Bou-san slide back a panel of the ceiling above the spot. Masako and Yasuhara gagged, both of them polite enough to do so into the crook of the elbows. There was an awful stench that swiftly permeated the room. Bou-san held his sleeve up to his nose and climbed from a chair onto a desk to take a look. There was a loud slithering noise and he quickly jumped off the desk as an adult-sized corpse fell out of the ceiling to land on the desk right where he had been standing.

“The spirits are gaki or “hungry ghosts”, not humans, which might be why they feel so odd to you Masako-san,” Takigawa informed them while staring grimly down at the corpse. “They are a type of demon the size of children. They appear emaciated with sunken skin and round bellies.”

Mai shivered lightly, something about the explanation tugging on her mind. 

“I don’t think we’ll find any more on this floor. We should go back to base and recuperate,” Monk suggested, glancing up to notice the fatigue etched on everyone’s faces.

The mud was heavy and so cold on her skin. Everything hurt so badly. She held back a sob she knew wouldn’t help.

Oliver swept his gaze around his team and nodded at the suggestion, before he led the way back toward their base. Gene put his hand on the small of Mai’s back and guided her between him and Noll since she appeared lost in thought again. There was no need for her to get in trouble with his ill-tempered brother because she was too busy worrying about the other members of their team.

They needed to get out. They needed to go back to the school.

Gene took one last look at the body and contemplated opening his abilities up, but Masako had indicated that their culprit’s presence was faint. John fell into line behind him, cut off his view, and he let the thought go. Masako Hara was a renowned medium. It wasn’t imperative to use his abilities yet.

They just needed to follow sensei. Sensei would guide them.

They reached base and John passed out cups of water for everyone. Eugene watched to make sure Mai drank. He furrowed his brow. He was becoming increasingly worried about the daze in her eyes and how subdued she seemed. It had lasted the entire trek from the classroom to the base. He wasn’t sure if she was just exhausted and strained from her ordeal the other day or if there was something more paranormal occurring.

Something was different, but Mai couldn’t put her finger on what it was. She drank her water slowly. The cold of the liquid against the back of her throat was relieving and helped to clear her head a bit. It seemed to be helping the children they had brought back to base with them too. She was glad they weren’t wandering around in the school by themselves anymore.

Oliver cleared his throat and everyone’s attention fell on him. There was a faint line of tension in his frame that Gene could only discern because they were twins and he knew his brother so well. “I suspect that the corpse falling was a distraction. Someone is likely missing.”

“Who, though?” Takigawa asked, cocking his head and glancing around at his fellow team members.

Oliver rested his chin in his hand. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe the children know,” Mai said, nodding towards where they were.

“That’s a good idea. You’re the best at understanding a child’s mindset, so you should ask,” Masako said. Mai thought she detected a hint of snideness, but was too concerned and drowsy to attempt to decipher the implications.

Mai looked over at the two children sitting and playing near the edge of the base. Takato-kun and Mariko-chan were giggling at whatever game they were playing and Mai was hesitant to interrupt them. She was sure they didn’t know where Lin, Ayako, or Yasuhara were. How could they when the adults didn’t know? She resolved to ask them in a few minutes, when they weren’t so happy.

Eugene stepped up next to his brother and in a voice quiet enough that the others couldn’t hear he whispered, “Noll, I’m worried about Mai. She looks tired.”

Oliver’s eyes cut directly to the brunette and he frowned. At this point, she looked more than tired.  She had been tired at the beginning of the day, worn out by the time Takigawa had returned from town, and now she was downright exhausted and ill-looking. Her face was tinged grey and she was quiet even while the others talked around her. Why she could complain so loudly about what a slave driver she thought he was when she was healthy, but not speak up to ask for a break when she appeared on the verge of collapse was a mystery to him.  

He sighed and muttered, “Stupid, stubborn girl,” too lowly for anyone to hear. Oliver took a few steps backwards and let himself slide down the room’s exterior wall. 

“Mai,” he called, but she didn’t so much as move. “Mai,” he hissed more urgently and she lifted her head, her brow furrowed in confusion as she glanced around.

“Come here, Mai,” he stated as firmly as he could through his burgeoning worry. She started toward him at a glacially slow pace and his twin rushed to help her. Gene guided her the rest of the way until she stood in front of him.

“Sit down before you fall down,” he instructed with a pointed glance to the empty space beside him.

She nodded and Eugene guided her down into the space next to him. Oliver tamped down the useless panic in his chest and put his fingers to the pulse point at her wrist. A command like that should have made Mai argue, huff, or at the very least roll her eyes at him. The fact that she had wordlessly complied was bad. “Gene, get her something to eat.”

Her heart rate was slow and irregular against his fingers. He wasn’t a medical doctor, but it didn’t take a genius to know that with her recent bout of heart trouble, any irregularities in her pulse were a cause for concern.

Eugene pressed some type of Japanese wafer that he didn’t recognize into her cold hands and Mai mechanically bit into it. Once he was sure she was eating, Gene sat down on the other side of her and watched her like a mother hen. When she was done snacking, Mai rested her head against the wall behind her.

"Why didn’t you mention that you were ill?” Oliver demanded before she could close her eyes.

“Mhm ‘lright,” she mumbled through a yawn she was too tired to cover.

Her eyes fell shut and Oliver grinned fondly. “I’d believe that more if you could say that without yawning. Now go to sleep, idiot and I forbid you from dreaming.”

She snorted softly. “- doesn’t work that way, narcissist.”

“Hush. You need to rest,” he said, his voice low but authoritative.

“-always such a jerk, even when you’re being nice,” she retorted, but Oliver didn’t respond to her because her body had already relaxed into sleep.

“She falls asleep like this every case?” Gene asked in a hushed tone, careful not to wake the sleeping girl between them. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen anyone fall asleep so fast without also losing consciousness.

Oliver shrugged, jarring the resting girl’s shoulder slightly. “She falls asleep this quickly frequently, but normally she doesn’t look this exhausted. Sometimes, I only look away for a few seconds and she’s asleep on whatever flat surface is nearby regardless of whether or not she was speaking in complete sentences a few minutes beforehand or not.  Maybe Matsuzaki-san was right that she should have stayed in the hospital for longer.”

Gene dropped his shoulders. “I should have mentioned something sooner. I noticed earlier that she was quiet and spaced out. All that walking around, then up and down multiple sets of staircases might have been too much stress on her.”

Mai’s head fell onto Oliver’s shoulder, her feathery bangs and soft breath grazing his neck not unpleasantly. As carefully as he could, he shrugged out of his coat jacket, draped it over the girl between him and Eugene, and then gently guided her head to rest in his lap. She would likely be embarrassed when she woke, but she needed as much restful sleep as possible and it was his fault she was so tired and his fault again that she was on this case with them.

When he looked up, he noticed Takigawa giving him and the girl in his lap a gleeful and knowing grin. Oliver returned his amused smile with a hard stare until the older man looked away with an exasperated scowl. He wouldn’t have Mai teased about this and he certainly wouldn’t allow the other man to tease him about taking care of his employee. Once he was sure that neither the monk nor anyone else would say anything, he pulled out his notebook to write down the rest of his observations and review what they had discovered so far.