Warning: parts of this story may contain spoilers for the manga, novel or anime.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt and I am not profiting from this fanfiction. Any resemblance of this fanfiction to other works or people are purely coincidental.

This is the fourtt of the series, Vesta's Bonds. You do not have to read the others to be able to read this one, but it is recommended.

Chapter 1: Beginning

Mai,

Do consider what I said. Try to stay away from this case, though if you must involve yourself, then remember the incantations that you've been taught you.Raidon's tattoo might help at times, but it's also a double edged sword.

Be careful.

Ayami.

Gold Coast, Australia

Once upon a time, when Ayami had been a child of four, she'd wondered why Fate chose to deal to her the cards it had. Her childhood was by no means a dream – kidnap, torture, and abandonment generally did constitute as terrible – but she'd been fortunate enough to be born with the abilities to challenge the fate that her family had ordained. Her temperament, while contemptuous, refused to admit defeat, and she supposed that was how she'd ended up where she was today.

As her gaze fell onto the child before her – stuck in a ward, screeching desperately to get out – she couldn't help but wonder if this would have been her, had she cared just a little bit less.

"Let me out!" the child-ghost snarled. He threw himself against the ward again, only to be thrown back to its centre. Instead of falling, he landed swiftly on his feet. His eyes snapped up to glare at her, glowing momentarily before humming out to its shade of brown.

Ayami cocked her head, eyebrows raised.

"Did you really think that was going to work?" she drawled. The boy growled furiously in reply and Ayami watched, apathetic, as his eyes hummed red again.

It seemed this ghost really was going to evolve. And soon.

Holding back her sigh – why couldn't the world just be compliant? – Ayami stood up and moved to the edges of the ward. Immediately, he lunged for her, and she watched, unflinching, as he was thrown back yet again and landed on all four limbs, just as a cat would. Had he possessed a tail, Ayami had no doubt that it probably would have bristled at her in aggression.

Ignoring his manners, Ayami spoke. "I have a question for you, child."

He was growling now in an almost feral nature, spitting nonsense from his mouth as he watched her in a manner akin to a lion with its prey. Impatient, Ayami snapped her fingers and shackles materialised, wrapping around the boy's neck. His fingers shot up to wrap around the manacles.

"I have a question for you," Ayami repeated, her tone surprisingly placid still. "The woman that was with the girl you captured –

"Wasn't she yours?" he spat. He tugged against the shackles impetuously and Ayami resisted the urge to form shackles on his hands too. Instead, she directed the shackle towards her, and as it moved, dragging the boy with it, he howled in rage, desperately trying to escape. She lifted the shackle until the boy's eyes were in direct contact with hers, his feet floating off the ground.

"If she was mine," Ayami started, meeting his gaze unflinchingly, "why would I ask you? As I was saying," she continued, ignoring his spluttering as he tried his best to breathe. Ghosts didn't need air, but many were so accustomed to breathing in their human forms that this particular form of torture had always been effective. "The woman that was with Mai. Tell me about her."

He remained annoyingly silent and Ayami crooked her finger, tightening the shackles. The boy's eyes widened. "I don't know anything about her!" he screamed. "She just came out of nowhere."

That was highly unlikely. Ayami had used a spell to confuse Chika's senses; she should have left Mai alone for another decade at least. Besides, even if she were to admit that her spell was ineffective, there was still Raidon's tattoo. She'd asked Mai about it later, though, and her cousin had said that she'd felt nothing before Chika had appeared before her. In fact, throughout the entire mission, her tattoo hadn't reacted at all.

The chances of both Ayami and Raidon failing were highly unlikely.

"Don't lie."

She tightened the shackles and the boy obliged. "It-it was an old man. He came and he left the woman there a few days before those ghost-hunting people came," he rasped. "He had a black cane and he drove in on a big, fancy car. He could beat you, witch, so don't be so cocky. You're not that good."

Her mind absently noticed that he wasn't quite as panicky as he'd been before, meaning he'd calmed down considerably. Soon, he'd realised that he didn't need air, and she'd have to be creative again.

A notion sparkled in her memory and Ayami almost cursed. How could she have forgotten?

She looked back at the boy whose words were becoming less and less child-like by the minute. "Who told you to search for a witch then? Was it the same man?"

He smirked, the shackles forgotten, before reaching towards her. His fingers tightened over and over as a sadistic smile spread across her lips. The boy was no doubt envisioning her neck within his grasp so that he could choke the life out of her. Impatiently, Ayami murmured a quick spell and winds carrying shattered glass formed a tiny whirlwind within the confines of the ward. She left him exactly where he was, just so that he could see each jagged edge before it hit him.

His howls of pain echoed in her chambers. Ayami put up with it for a minute or two before she moved the whirlwind to a corner of the ward, dissolving the glass.

Ayami waited for the boy's eyes to meet hers again before she spoke.

"Now," she said, "we can either do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way involves you letting me enter your subconscious so that I can retrieve the memories I want before I help you move on. The hard way, on the other hand, includes you turning into a demon – which will give me something solid to work with - before I forcefully enter your mind and get what I want."

He was glaring at her furiously now and Ayami ignored it before continuing. "I assure you, kid. If you think this is bad now, it'll be nothing compared to what I can do to you when you gain a solid body."

He tried to spit at her.

Nothing came out, of course – he was a ghost, after all – but if it was his intention to irritate her, she had to admit that he'd succeeded.

The hard way it was then.

Hours passed, and the sun had pretty much risen by the time Ayami had left the room behind her bookshelf. She pushed her 'door' closed before leaning against it, resisting the urge to release a sigh of exhaustion.

Her faculties, clearly more awake than her body, alerted her of the change in her library before her eyes even caught onto what was different. Quickly, her senses scanned the room before her gaze landed on the single, transparent card sitting in the centre of her desk.

Ayami took a step towards. She raised her arm and the card took flight, swishing immediately into her grasp. Her fingers pressed visibly against the piece, visible through the plastic, as she read its contents.

Ayami Domjouji, Imperial First Lady of the Caecilius Clan, you are hereby invited...

Tokyo, Japan

Mai was dreaming again.

It was a dream that she hadn't had for awhile but she would still remember its essence anywhere. There was absolutely nothing, and no one, around her. Only darkness. Dreams like this weren't unusual for Taniyama Mai. After all, she did work for a Ghost Hunter on paranormal cases in relation to ghosts, demons and witches. And, she herself was a psychic with various passive powers.

It really wasn't a surprise that she would be dreaming now, but still, Mai was startled every time this vision came.

Mai could still remember the exact temperature, the exact feeling, and the exact dread and anticipation she'd feel every time she stepped into this dream.

And moments after, he would appear.

Gene.

And just like that, from the darkness, Mai saw his figure approach. He walked calmly, steadily, and swiftly towards her. His pale skin seemed even lighter in this darkness, but right on cue, as he moved closer towards her, a strange, subtle light appeared around him so that she wouldn't be overly alarmed by his appearance.

"Hello Mai," Gene greeted, once he'd stopped in front of her.

Mai was confused. During their last case, he hadn't even tried to make contact with her, but suddenly, he was in front of her as though nothing had happened. He'd clearly been avoiding her, but Mai didn't want to bring it up. She didn't want him to leave. Honestly, Mai had missed having him around a little. His advice and judgements had always helped her.

"You've never called me when we weren't on a case before," Mai said.

Gene's smile was gentle. "That's because you weren't quite strong enough for that. Your powers have been expanding, so it's a lot easier for me to come to you now, even without the paranormal charges."

Her powers had actually been expanding for a long time now, according to her psychic cousin, due to Mai's exposure to the supernatural entities. It was strange that Gene was only trying to talk to her now though, especially since he'd been avoiding her for a long time now. Well, maybe he hadn't been avoiding her, but she hadn't seen him sinceNaru had discovered that she and Gene were in contact, which was the same time that Mai had found out that Gene was Naru's missing twin brother.

Looking at him now, Mai didn't know how she could have ever mistaken Naru for Gene. Sure, they were twins, but there was something about both brothers that set them as two completely different individuals. Gene's smile was friendlier, his gestures more welcoming whenever he saw her. They might have been identical in looks, but the way they carried themselves, the way they expressed themselves, and even the way they moved was completely different. And,now that she was looking, she could see that Gene's skin was also a shade tanner than Naru's.

How could she have not noticed?

"Why didn't you ever tell me that you were Naru's brother?" she asked. He was so different to Naru; she knew that he had his own reason for not telling her who he was, but surely he knew that she thought he was his brother. Gene wasn't like Naru; he was friendly and a lot more easygoing than his brother. Mai couldn't see Gene being quite as malicious or evasive like Naru was, so why had he pretended to be his brother?

"I was trying to do Noll a favour," Gene told her. He shrugged lightly, in a manner so casual that it was completely anti-Naru. "I knew he cared about you, but he wasn't doing a very good job of showing it. I didn't want you to dislike him, so I pretended to be him. Everyone normally gets us mixed up anyway..."

She'd first met Gene about a day after she'd met Naru. Sure, Mai had thought that he was an egotistical narcissist—

Okay, now she understood why he might have interfered. But why did it matter if she liked Naru or not? Mai knew Naru didn't care, and she quickly voiced her thoughts to the other boy.

Gene frowned in response to Mai's question. "Because he cares for you, of course."

Selfishly, it pleased her a little that Naru's own twin thought that he cared for her, but the more realistic side of her told her that it was quite obvious that that wasn't true.

"Noll doesn't like to show it when he cares for other people," Gene told her, correctly interpreting her expression. "And I was so afraid that he'd scare away the first person that he cared for outside family. "Noll's charm is, well..." Gene dropped off and Mai could tell why he had difficulty continuing.

"Non-existent?" she supplied dryly, remembering back to all the times Naru had called her stupid, lied to her, or tricked her. The worst part was that he always did so it so well that she was the one that ended up feeling bad.

"I was going to say lacking," Gene replied, his smile still evident. "But I guess that expression works too."

Mai shrugged. She wasn't going to argue. Shibuya Kazuya, her nineteen – almost twenty year-old – employer, who was better known as 'Naru', left a lot to be desired. Normally, Mai wouldn't feel so genuinely bitter towards him, but she'd only recently found out that Naru had been lying to her for over two years about his identity. It turned out that he was actually Oliver Davis, the European psychic professor in paranormal research who was literally a celebrity in Europe. She'd gotten over it – well, kind of – eventually, but that hadn't stopped Mai from feeling incredibly sour for awhile. Especially since she'd had a slight crush on him for all this time.

"Ayami told us that if we head out to one of the hospital that we'd find you there." Mai watched his face closely, careful to look out for any sign of emotion. "Is that true?"

His expression became carefully guarded, though his tone was still gentle. "The hospital isn't safe, you know. You shouldn't go there."

Mai frowned. He sounded exactly like Ayami, Mai's cousin, someone who was also one of the most powerful psychics in the world. Sure enough, Ayami had warned them that a family of the Five would be there, but Bou-san said that the Mizuki family was the most respected and pacifistic of them all.

"What do you mean?"

Gene shrugged, just as his body faded into millions of will-o'-wisps. As he left, Mai reached out to grab him, only to have the lights shy from her fingers, almost like fireflies in the night.

"Gene!" Mai called out. She turned a full circle, watching as his will-o'-the-wisp faded blew away with the wind before fading into the darkness. "What do you mean?"

His voice echoed, light and serene. It sounded as though he'd moved a fair distance now, but in the darkness, Mai had no idea where he actually was.

"You'll see."

She almost rolled her eyes at this theatrics. "When will I 'see'?" she asked.

"Soon."

Taniyama Mai's snapped open.

She'd fallen asleep in the school library again. Mai had gotten the afternoon off to finish her assignment, which she was in dire need of finishing. She must have dozed off after she'd finished it.

She moved her head from side to side on her neck, stretching until she heard her bones crack just a little. The release of the tension was incredible and almost at once, Mai felt revitalised.

"You're going to paralyse yourself doing that one day."

The voice startled her andshe let out a half-scream, immediately covering her own mouth with both her palms. When she recognised the person in front of her, Mai lowered her hand, even though her heart was still pounding.

"Naru?"

Her employer, Shibuya Kazuya, in the flesh, leant against the bookshelf behind her, clearly having had been there for a long time. His gesture was overly casual, which made Mai a little suspicious. How long had he been watching her sleep? Mai was surprised that he hadn't gotten over there and woken her up she was drooling?

Mai's eyes widened, horrified for a moment.

On the bright side, if it had been drool, she would have felt it when she set her hands on her mouth, right?

God, she hoped she was right.

"What are you doing here?" Mai asked.

"We got the location of the hospital from your cousin just an hour ago. I came to tell you that we will be heading out tomorrow."

That was all? It didn't explain why he'd gone all this way to tell her though. "Why didn't you just call me?" Mai asked. It would probably be best for her to ignore the fact that Naru had been waiting for this phone call for over two days now. Ayami had decided that the suspense would do Naru good and had made him wait. She had said something about patience being virtue, and that she wanted to torture him for a little longer.

Had it been anyone else, Mai swore that they would have rolled their eyes at her question. "I came because you left your cell phone at home again."

Mai laughed sheepishly. Oh, she'd forgotten that. Well, Mai could count on her ten fingers how many people knew her number. Because it was her work cell, she tried not to give her phone number out to her friends. Only the other members of SPR, short for Shibuya Psychic Research, contacted her with that, and really, only Naru – and sometimes, Ayami – called her. If she got home now, she'd probably only have one missed call from Naru.

Then, Mai remembered that she hadn't told anyone that she was coming here today. "How did you know that I was here?" she asked.

Naru looked at her rather dry look that said 'where else would you be?' and didn't even bother answering her question. "You'd best pack for tomorrow. Lin will be at your apartment at 8:00 tomorrow morning to pick you up."

He didn't say any more and Mai suddenly remembered his purpose for coming to Japan: to look for his brother. Now Mai knew why he hadn't woken her up; he knew that there was a possibility that she might have dreamt of Gene, and of course, his instincts had played true. Mai quickly gave him a rundown of what she'd dreamt off, and what his twin had said. When she finished, Mai took a breath, releasing that she'd now ranted on for awhile.

"Is that all he said?" Naru asked.

Well, he'd said more than that, but there was no way Mai was sharing the first part of their conversation with him. Instead, she nodded, and quickly gathered her books up to leave. Naru stood aside, patiently waiting for her as she packed her belongings in her bag. Mai didn't expect him to stay with her, but he did, strangely enough, and the gesture warmed her.

It surprised her still when Naru exited with her and ended up taking the same path as her, even though the office was in the opposite direction. It was dark outside already, which told Mai that she had to have been sleeping for at least two or three hours. Well, at least she'd gotten her assignment done. Tomorrow, she'd have to email it to her teacher.

About halfway home, Mai couldn't resist any further. Naru had never walked her home before. Why start now?

"Where are you going?" Mai asked. He hadn't picked up anything else from the library either, which told her that he really had just come all the way to the library for her, and now, he was walking her home.

Naru ignored her. Instead, he kept walking.

Mai tugged on his jacket. "Naru—"

"Be quiet," he ordered, and his tone annoyed Mai more than ever. Mai rolled her eyes at him and moved towards the opposite direction, only to have him pull her towards him again. She hadn't known that Naru was that strong, but at the moment, his grip on her arm was fairly impossible to break.

"What are we—Hey! We just missed my turn!"

"Shush, Mai!"

Now that annoyed her. Mai's bag swung against her back as Narutugged her through the streets. The streets were still busy at this time, with people coming home from work and students heading home from tutoring.

One of the textbooks that she'd borrowed knocked right into her tailbone, and that was the final straw. They might have looked like an average couple, walking through the streets, but Mai sure as hell didn't mind making a scene now.

"Naru!" Just when she was ready to yank her arm back, Naru tugged her over towards him.

"We're being followed," Narutold her, just as his mouth slightly grazed her ears.

Followed.

Her mind numbed for a moment, thoughtless, and then, Mai's eyes widened when she realised what that meant. She tried to look around to see who it was that was following her, only to have Naru tug on her hand gently so that she'd face the front again.

"Why are they following us?" Mai asked, speaking at the corner of her mouth. This time, he didn't even bother pretending. His exasperation was more than obvious and Mai saw him actually roll his eyes, which deeply offended her, since she knew that he didn't do that normally.

"They're following you, not me," Naru murmured in response.

Flabbergasted, Mai snapped her head back at him. "Me?" she hissed. Then, Mai flinched when she realised how loud that had sounded and she quickly lowered her voice. "Me?" she whispered. "Why on Earth would they be following me? You're the supposed celebrity psychic in England. If there really is someone following us, I think they would be following you."

"Think of who your cousin is,"Naru replied, his voice soft. "She's a multi-millionaire, leader of the Five, and has the potential to offend almost every person in existence."

Naru had never liked Ayami. And though he didn't like many people, he seemed to actuallydislike that Mai didn't know why – Ayami did, after all, go out of her way to annoy Naru – but it was odd for him to show such aversion someone else.

"That doesn't mean that they'd be following me," Mai said. And it was true. Just because Ayami was Ayami didn't mean that they'd come after Mai. After all, the two of them were two completely different people.

"Don't be so naive," Naru said, and that peeved her off incredibly. Mai huffed, turning her face away from him. Then, the textbook whacked her bruised tailbone again, ruining the affect as she winced in pain.

"Where are we going anyway?"

Naru didn't pause in his movement, and Mai realised that they had completely reached another part of town that she didn't recognise. Everything her seemed a little more elite, which told Mai that they were in a more prestigious neighbourhood now.

"I'll take you back to my condominium for now."

His condominium? The one he shared with Lin-san? This might not be a bad thing, actually. Mai was curious about how the two of them lived. It wasn't as though either of them actually spoke, unless it was utterly necessary. How did the two of them associate? Suddenly, Mai looked forward to their fieldtrip. This was definitely going to be good.

Mai saw Naru focus on the path ahead of him and she used this opportunity to look around them. They'd entered the more private living regions already; there wasn't anyone around except for the two of them, really.

"Are you sure someone's even following us?" Mai asked finally. She had yet to see hide or hair of anyone who was supposedly after them. "And why are you letting me talk now, when before, you made me whisper and wouldn't talk to me about it?"

He looked back at her, and Mai was surprised to see his generally passive eyes pierce right into her soul when he turned back to look at her.

"Because they already know that we know."

September 9th, 2013: Hey guys! Okay, so we're finally moving onto Cursed. I have most of this one planned out, so hopefully I'll be able to make weekly/fortnightly updates for it. I'll be going to Japan around mid month, though, so I probably won't be during those weeks. What happened at the end of Ayami's scene probably won't be talked about for a few more chapters, because I don't plan for her to make an appearance (bar phone calls and emails to Mai) until Part 5. Hm. I think I've replied to everyone's reviews (I've had a pretty busy week), so if I haven't I'm really sorry. Just let me know and I'll get to it :). Thanks guys!

Midwinteroasis: You're right! It is Miharu! I changed it right after you told me. I think I've been watching too much of Prince of Tennis ;). Does this chapter explain more about Yukito-chan? You asked if Mai's display of that power is an integral part of stories to come, and well... I think it is. LOL Well, for what I planned, it is, but my plans for this story have changed time and time again. If I don't explain in few chapters about how she did what she did, remind me, lol, and I'll make sure to include it.