Tutor

Chapter 1: The Downfalls of Haunted Onigiri

3.27.10

"That's a lovely trash can you have there."

The smell of the coffee shop late at night failed to be calming to say the least. Bitter espresso wafted among sugar-filled syrups scents, doing nothing for the zombie feeling she was already experiencing. She had three midterms in two weeks, two of which composed 30% percent of her grade each. Her teachers called them tests, a thinly veiled disguise for what she called them—torture.

Mai slid her gaze covertly to her cell phone and clicked a button as quietly as possible on the side to light up the front LCD screen. 9:38 p.m. blared brightly back at her, making her once-sour mood slip further south. She had been at this for four hours and her brain was taking on the consistency of sludge. In a pale tan paper cup, sat two-hour stale and cold coffee. She briefly paused, thinking about why she needed the caffeine, but would have been much better off without the nasty taste. The reflection in the once-dark brown coffee – that she had paled to oblivion with cream – grimaced back at her before she wrapped her fingers around the chilled cup. Quickly, she took a begrudging sip, knowing it would be disgusting, but unable to deny the need for quick energy.

Mai scowled at the bitter beverage and silently cursed Yasuhara because this adventure into a different culture was his idea. Mai would take tea any day over nasty coffee. She took another sip, however, when she realized she was falling asleep when attempting to study.

The tile floor clicked amiably against her bouncing foot. The chair cradling her back was ramrod straight, allowing for no comfortable position – probably so that people like her didn't linger for hours on end in the coffee shop blocking customers and productivity, which she, of course, was doing. The chairs around the café were a deep maroon set against the pale blue tables and ash gray floors. The walls matched the chairs, more red than maroon though. No more than 12 people were in the shop and she was the only one with a companion. At this point, she considered him a rather annoying companion – the companion known as Yasuhara. But that was probably just the coffee speaking. Or perhaps, the endless hours in the coffee shop.

Yasuhara was actually one of the nicest – yet oddest – men she knew, which was unusual in itself considering that he was the most spiritually mundane among her group of friends. Being the weirdest among mikos, monks, diviners and various psychics was something to be said, if not be wary of.

Across the table Yasuhara was currently embroiled in critiquing her latest work assessing of Edo period architecture and its influence in the current world. She couldn't remember why she'd ever wanted to take an ancient architectural class. Grudgingly, she admitted to herself that it probably had something to do with Naru's insistence that building structure was crucial to ghost hunting and how he spent hour upon hour studying the building and surrounding area.

So yeah, maybe it had something to do with that, but she'd never tell him that she took that class, let alone why. Like he needed anymore power over her. He did just fine on his own where she was concerned. She suppressed rising memories of "Mai, set the cameras up." "Mai, temperature readings, go." Sometimes he would even switch it up and add her proper title at the end of the sentence as in, "Tea, Mai!" At least, it provided a small variety.

Hence, why Yasuhara was her tutor now. Sure, Naru was useful in nearly every aspect of knowledge, but he would just degrade her and distract her, however unintentionally, from her work. It probably had something to do with his long, dark eyelashes that put hers to shame, the way he would often glance up at her through them (even if the look was in disdain because she had watered the fake plants in the office—who buys fake plants!). Maybe it was the lazy fall of hair that fell over his dark eyes, that she thought desperately needed a hair cut, but she couldn't bear him doing so, because the lazy, uneven, badly designed cut was just so Naru. Outside of Shibuya Psychic Research, she was actually a rather competent individual. She made rent payments on time, handled all of her utility bills, and was even making payments on one of those little Vespas in her favorite midnight blue, which was about the only thing she could afford on her budget. She'd desperately needed the transport, even with how hard it was on her fluctuating income.

Things were better when Naru decided to take a case. All though, she wished he would take more cases a bit more often, so that she wouldn't have to dip into her savings so often, but she would never ask him to do so for her benefit. That was why she had another job at Mayahama's Electric Warehouse three days a week where she handled calls regarding purchases. If she wanted, she could go get another job, a full-time one that wouldn't require quite so much travel, nowhere near as much stress and definitely no unrelated heartache. She was suffering here for an entirely different reason; therefore, she would never beg him to do anything he didn't want to himself. It was just too selfish to her.

And that was how she had landed with Yasuhara as her tutor at from 5:30 until 10:00. It was her only free time other than the weekends, but with the midterms upcoming, she needed all the time that she had. Mai could handle subjects that she had some liking for, but for others that that held no interest…she often found it hard to work so hard for things she didn't care about (which probably also had something to do why she hated her other part-time job.)

"…really, Mai, this is terrible. How can you expect to compare post-modern architecture –ugly square buildings, all steel and cement towering into the sky – to the intricacies of balancing the beauty and pragmatism in 14th century wooden magnificence. In a word, it's ghastly."

Ghastly. That was a word she'd never heard to describe her writing. She'd add that to the growing list of adjectives Yasuhara tried to gently – a word to be used sparingly – evaluate her work with.

She couldn't wait to return the favor on their next paranormal research case. Even though he was steadily catching her in terms of knowledge – and would most likely surpass her thanks to his disgusting dedication to reading books of spook-like nature – she was still a little bit better in that area. That little bit gave her an ample amount of self-confidence to take a beating in Yasuhara's arena, studying. Low and behold, she was beaten to a blood pulp, and somehow was still stumbling on her feet.

Yasuhara looked back down to the paper and adjusted his glasses a few times the closer he tried to get to her paper, as if disbelieving what she wrote.

Mai propped her chin on the back of her hand, sighing wearily. She was god-awful at architecture and had trouble comprehending what was considered classically beautiful and modernly beautiful. All of the old structures were pretty to her, but some were asymmetrical and she couldn't understand how that impacted the aesthetic appeal and value as her professor asserted.

A bead of sweat trickled down her spine, causing Mai to straighten sharply. Her back and hands were clammy, even though outside the temperature was around four degrees Celsius outside. Her face fell and she rolled her eyes. Surely, the back of her shirt was already damp and spotted with sweat marks. Great, just great. She normally waited to wear a shirt twice before she watched it and now she would have to throw it in the wash with the rest of her laundry. Outside, the sky was dark and wet lines started to show up on the window, slowly at first and then faster.

It was starting to rain and the light was reflecting off the streaks of water. Perfect to drive home in. She was going to get soaked by the rain, but she was going to be drenched by the cars passing her. Maybe she should have thought out that Vespa a bit more…

"This last part about the structures from the Chinese Tang Dynasty as influential of later Japanese building is much more on point."

Mai grinned and nudged him. "See? I'm getting better. All of this information is slowly seeping into here. My brain is like a sponge!"

"Porous?" he asked with contrived discomfort.

Mai swatted at him. "Absorbing knowledge—jeez!"

His own smirk faded when he reevaluated her paper. "But this first part needs heavy revision. I'd suggest studying around the 13th century. The way they surveyed locations by the height of the sun and the angle of the shadows. Pretty impressive stuff, actually. That's where you fall short of total comprehension. The rest is passable."

Mai folded her lips into a line, gave a thumbs-up and started to pack her things. "Good enough for now. Can we close up for the night? I'm beat and need to get some rest in before my early start. Are you working tomorrow?"

Yasuhara appraised her. "Working…yes? In the office, no. Lin asked me to gather some information on a local hostel to see if we should take a case or not. I take it, you're in the office."

Mai nodded, pulled the zipper on her backpack to close it while she planned out her schedule for tomorrow in her head.

"What about Naru?"

"What about him?" Mai asked too quickly.

He gave her an odd look. "Is he going to be in the office tomorrow?"

"How would I know?"

Yasuhara's eyebrow arched higher. "I'm surprised you haven't called into the office to check on him. You used to be pretty diligent about that."

Mai scratched her nose, then dug into her backpack to search for her keys to distract herself. When she found them, she dangled them winningly off the end of her fingers, only to notice that Yasuhara was still waiting for an answer to a question he hadn't really asked.

"What?" she asked a little maliciously.

His serious look didn't wither as she'd expected under her wrath. "You know what I mean."

"I think you overestimate my capacity to comprehend your meaning." She got up to throw away that nasty coffee. Over her shoulder she added, "Aren't you and Naru always saying that I'm a brick short of a wall anyway?"

"We're teasing—" She froze him with a lifted eyebrow. "—Well, I'm teasing, maybe Naru isn't…" He looked oddly uncomfortable. "Anyway," he rebounded quickly, and looked around the shop like he was studying the people inside. "Are you going to be needing a ride back to your place?"

Mai's face lifted with barely restrained pride. "Nope, I'm going to be just fine. See that dark blue spot out there?" She pointed. "That's mine."

He hesitated, then turned to give her a half-smile. "That's a lovely trash can you have there."

"The Vespa," she hissed.

"Ah," he said in mock-appreciation, before standing to join her. "It's going to be a wet ride home," he pointed out. The steady drip of rain had quickly upgraded to torrential downpour.

She merely jingled her keys as an answer, adding, "It'll be refreshing."

"And cold-inducing."

"It helps me clear my mind, almost like meditating."

"Yeah, nothing like a layer of anti-freeze and motor oil to pamper the skin with. Keeps it young and firm. See? No wrinkles, just malignant cancer."

"Shut up."

Yasuhara held out her coat, helped her slide her arms into it, then settled it onto her shoulders. The door to the coffee shop chimed noisily as they walked through the sensor.

Mai pulled her hood up, but kept a grasp on the edges to pull it closer around her face. It barely covered the crown of her head, but it was also five years old, worn back when she'd been three-and-a-half inches shorter and five kilograms lighter.

Yasuhara flipped his own hood, which fell nearly to his eyes.

The pocket at her hip started to vibrate, probably her phone. She fished it out, covered it with one hand to protect it from the rain and cradled it with the other while trying to read the message.

"Last chance," he offered, jingling his own set of keys. "We can load your Vespa in the back."

Mai obviously hadn't heard, as she stared at her phone, sighed half-heartedly, and rolled her eyes. "Sorry." She clicked the phone closed sharply and slipped it into her backpack. "What were you saying?"

He glanced down at her. "Forget it, what was that about?"

"Oh, you know, fourth date this semester that has been botched."

Yasuhara quirked an eyebrow. "And?"

"He cancelled on me," she shrugged with nonchalance.

"You don't sound too disappointed."

Her perky response baffled him. "I'm not, actually. I'm ecstatic that he cancelled. Regular people can be so…boring to me now." Flushing and realizing her mistake, she covered with, "except you, of course, Yasuhara."

He grinned back broadly. "My ego's far too sturdy a thing to let that bother me. You supernatural girls are far too high maintenance for me. Exorcise this, kekkai that. It gets old quickly," he complained, feigning impatience.

She tucked her hair back in her hood, primping. "I'd rather talk about the interesting things. The Exciting things: possession, ghosts, demons, shinigami, zombies, wall-writing, walking through walls, creatures of the night, onigiri."

"Onigiri?"

"Onigiri, though I prefer my onigiri haunted. That way I can eat it and defeat it at the same time."

"Ah, you are indeed a strange one, Taniyama-san. Next to that, I can't imagine how's it's possible for a mundane man to measure up to that."

Something occurred to Mai. "How come you never call me by my first name? Everyone else does."

"Hm. I've never put much thought into. In my family, we call everyone outside our immediate relatives by their surname." He shrugged. "Guess I'm just accustomed to it. You never call me by my name."

"That was how you introduced yourself. Yasuhara just suits you too well now."

"Fine by me."

"Well, when you are comfortable…" she began.

"When I'm comfortable, I'll try it out," he agreed, but segued rapidly, as if it had been bothering him the whole time. "You know, I can't understand why any date would cancel on you. Any regular boy should be honored that you had spoken with him. Maybe your boisterous attitude scared him away. Bou-san did say you should try being more docile." The last practically dripped sarcasm.

Mai sighed at how he sabotaged the serious sentiment with the latter jabbing statements.

Thinking quickly, Mai took a step closer to him, batting her eyelashes like she'd seen Ayako do so many times before, though with exponentially less effectiveness.

"Are you hitting on me, Yasuhara-kun?" she asked charmingly. She placed one hand on his arm, tilted her head to the side, displaying practiced innocence. A little too well, he conceded.

"With love and patience, nothing is impossible. So it may be very possible," he joked right back.

"Did you just quote at me? And that didn't make sense."

"Ah, so you recognized it," he said, diverting her from her last thought. He pinched his chin between his forefinger and thumb, before raising one eyebrow jokingly. "I could've quoted Kobayashi Issa, but his love haiku is more about a girl eating rice cakes, if you would believe it. Now that I think about it, that would have been more appropriate given this girl and her haunted onigiri…," he trailed off playfully.

Mai shoved his arm playfully and rolled her eyes. "I'm not Bou-san, go pull someone else's leg. Mine are long enough."

"Sure, short-stuff." Yasuhara grinned widely, then reached over and pulled her into a one-armed hug. "I especially like you for that."

"For what?" she asked coyly, ducking her head from under his grasp.

"You see right through people, more so than most. For someone so hardheaded, you can be scarily perceptive." Mai pulled a face and shoved him away harder this time.

"I'll take it as the compliment you meant it not to be."

She stepped into a puddle, splashing ice-cold water into her socks, soaking right to the skin and making her yelp. Mai twisted and danced around at the cold sensation, deciding it was time to get to her Vespa and make her cold, rain-filled trip home.

She gestured to her Vespa, tucked her hands under her arms. He nodded and said a soft farewell.

"Thanks for your help tonight."

"No problem. Be careful," he said as headed in the opposite direction for his car.

As Mai measured the traffic and prepared to dodge the cars, she yelled back at his retreating

form. "Maybe one day a nice, regular man will ask me out."

"Maybe I will," he called, taking the girl aback.

Mai's mouth hung open, catching raindrops while she tried to figure out what he meant by that. He had meant actually asking her out, right?

That hadn't been what she had meant in any manner, but...the idea didn't stop her chest from warmly pleasantly, or a smile from curling her lips, keeping her a tiny bit warmer all the frigid way home.

Next Chapter: The Law of Constants