AFTER 30 YEARS
Chapter 3
"Pretty," the bass musician commented. The cold had gotten the worse of him and I thought he was looking funny. Bou-san stared at the photo on in his hands as he massaged the bridge of his red nose. In fact, Jin had forgotten to take it with him after he visited us last week. We never heard of them afterwards.
"She yours, Naru-chan?" he grinned.
I nearly spit out my tea before saying, "Naru and a tomboy girlfriend?"
There was a moment of silence before the two of us laughed. As usual, the boss ignored us poking fun at him.
"Ahaha, Bou-san, that's too funny!"
"Girlfriend?" He shook his head at me and put the photo in my view next to Naru who was sitting across of me. "More like she could be his daughter… just look at that little face and that cute scowl! Exactly like our Naru, but more huggable! Like-!"
In a sudden act the monk embraced me in his arms.
"Cut it out you're choking me, pervert!" I managed to breathe.
It was only when the photo was snatched away from his grasp that he quit his assault.
"What's up Lin-san?"
Lin-san stared at the photo with critical eyes. I hadn't noticed him leaving his room at all.
"…this uniform," His low voice began to speak.
We blinked. The man probably never looked at the photo when it was given out the first time. I guess he was paying more attention to the weird foreigner than the girl on the photo.
"What? You fancy school girls in uniform?" The monk rubbed his chin in curiosity.
Lin-san contemplated for a short while, before giving back the photo to the other man.
"Never mind. Please continue your work."
Wait, did Lin-san get embarrassed? However, Bou-san gave me that nasty grin on his face again. Damn him. Before he could ever continue choking me, Naru spoke up.
"Leave," he said, still reading his book, "don't play around here."
"What? You're kicking me out in this cold weather?" Bou-san whined, "Naru-chan, you're too cruel-!"
I nodded vehemently.
"I think we've kicked out enough people, Bou-san can keep us entertained!"
I pretended playing bass in his fashion, but Takigawa's eyes rolled upwards in an exhausted fashion.
"Oh Mai, I've had it with those Christmas and New Year party gigs…I need to do one last concert tomorrow and then I'm on break!" he sighed.
Naru shut his book tight all of sudden, refusing to look up at us.
"Mai, you can go now and you don't need to come in this entire week. Consider this free time to attend to your school work."
"Wha-?" I dropped my jaw. Is this his idea of kicking me out?
"Lucky Mai! Want to go on a vacation with me?" He patted my back.
I ignored the monk and kept staring at Naru. He noticed my gaze on him and looked up again, only to glance at Lin-san's door temporarily. Geh. Bou-san noticed it as well, and much like a certain visitor he scurried away from the couch.
"Well, it's not like we especially need to bother you guys," he said to Naru, and then asked me, "how about we go on a date again, missy?"
"Why are you letting me off, Naru?"
"Why?" he repeated, "because it's reasonable. Start to think for yourself next time. I need to cut down on expenses."
* * *
"Take it easy Mai."
"How am I supposed to take it easy? He wrote me off as an expense!"
"But you are missy, just think abou- ouch! My toes!"
I grinned mischievously at the monk after stomping his foot 'accidentally'.
"Alright take me on a date, Bou-san. It's your treat."
We had reached the end of the stairs as he stopped.
"I take offense at that suggestion," Bou-san slowly and calmly told me, "I'm serious it hurts in my heart and-" he pointed to somewhere below, "my toes."
"Then stop pretending to be Naru, I don't need you to tell me to get smart."
"Whatever you want missy," he sighed, pulling out the keys to unlock the doors of the car parked in front of the building, "so wanna go for a ride somewhere?"
"Yeah!" I nodded fiercely.
"Are you sure? I might be a pervert," he teasingly said, while taking the driver's seat.
This time I was the one to sigh. Just take me out of this boring place!
"Monks aren't supposed to be perverts."
He smirked.
"Are you sure I am a monk?"
"Erm, no," I eyed the bass guitar case sitting next to him.
"There you go."
"I'll go in the backseat, thank you very much," I said as I opened the back door.
Ten minutes were passed in silence ever since our conversation and I was feeling very tired all of sudden, despite having had enough sleep to last normally through the day. During my attempts to stay away, I didn't know where he was taking me at all. The last minutes he spent randomly touring around the city. I nearly slipped into a nap before the person in front of me blew his nose and then spoke.
"Mai, it's just a joke."
"I know Bou-san," I said groggily, "I just don't want you to move around your bass guitar-"
"It's lonely here, come and sit with me. The bass won't break."
"I don't know. I've never handled instruments before," I yawned.
There was a long pause.
"Oh Mai. You're not that clumsy," he replied instead. The monk obviously noticed my exhaustion, but decided not to comment.
"You sure about that?"
"….no?" He nervously looked into the rear mirrors.
"See. You don't trust me," I said.
"Well, the feeling's mutual," he decided. "Now we stand even."
"Right."
"You've never played an instrument before?"
"Nope."
"It's fun, you should try it sometime."
"I don't have the money."
"You could always ask you parents."
That's where it always ends. At that point I hadn't told anybody yet about my home situation.
"I mean, don't you take music classes at school," he tried, again staring at the mirrors, apparently missing my lack of response. "High school students these days…"
"I didn't know you were that old," I teased him.
"Mai, what makes you think I am that old?!"
"Well, you are talking like a grumpy old man."
"Ugh," he sighed, "c'mon girl, take the bass to the back and sit with me."
Clumsily my hands took the length to the car's ceiling, careful not to disturb Bou-san's driving.
"Don't break it Mai," he warned.
I stuck out my tongue.
"If I break it, I'll be sure to hit you with this thing for even suggesting doing this at all."
"It won't break," he decided, as I proceeded to haul it to the back.
"Alright I did it!"
"Good girl, can you strap it down for me too?" His voice had become decidedly serious for the occasion.
"Sure," I did as he said.
"Nice, now come and sit with me here."
This was rather difficult to do, but as the chairs weren't tall at all I actually managed to land gracefully into the seat next to Bou-san.
"Seatbelts."
"Yeah yeah, I know."
As I finished that task as well, I looked up to see his face, which unveiled anxiety. Did something happen…?
"Bou-san… what's going on?"
After casting another glance at the rear mirror, he stared down at me.
"Mai, we're being followed."
* * *
Seven minutes before I told Mai, I had noticed the two motorcyclists tailing behind. As we left the Shibuya district three minutes later I thought something fishy was going on, so I did some detours. That's when I realized our position and I decided to make her sit in the front, because I couldn't risk an accident while I wanted to shake them off. Shake them off. What the hell am I planning to do?
"We're being followed."
"Bou-san, what? Are you serious?!"
"Girl, I am," I said as I looked her sternly in the eye for a moment, before focusing on the road again.
"Don't look to the back. They'll know we noticed them."
"Wha?"
"By now they should," I corrected myself and went into a busy highway. They followed us. Damn it.
"Who is it?"
I looked into the rear mirror again.
"Two motorcyclists, wearing helmets and black leather jackets. Know anyone like them?"
"I have no idea."
"Che. Why in the world are they after us…?"
"What do we do now?"
"The hell I know!" I said, "Call the police. Got a phone?"
"I don't have any!"
"Nooo," I whined. I accidentally left mine home. My day couldn't get any worse.
Then Mai started to gasp all of sudden after she looked in the back mirror.
"Mai?"
"It's them."
"Them?"
"Those two guys we rejected in the office!" she explained.
"What the hell?!" I yelled, "Those jackasses don't know when to quit do they!?"
I made a sudden turn to the left that went to the western direction. Those guys were shaken off, but surely enough reappeared after moments. It's quiet in the car until, she tugged the sleeve of my jacket, when looked at her eyes were shut.
"Please. Stop the car," she said breathlessly, "My head is.."
"Are you okay?"
Mai shook her head lightly and then fell over. The only thing keeping her body up was the seatbelt. My bottom lip dropped in shock.
"Oy, Mai!" I managed to say.
My worry for her made me stop somewhere in an abandoned road. By that time the two had caught up with us and I decided to deal with them instead of playing hide and seek.
"Wake up Mai!"
She didn't wake up. I undid her seatbelt and left her there to sit.
The sound of engines stopped near us. I rapidly turned on my feet to see a tall man standing there with his partner. Behind him were the motorcycles. Both of them wore helmets.
"Stay away from us," I said, trying to sound intimidating.
The two men stopped 20 steps away from our car.
"Takigawa Houshou. Former Buddhist monk from Mount Kouya. Am I correct?"
I stared at them cautiously. These guys...
"How do you know all of that? ...and what do you want from us?"
"Simple investigation. It's not that hard..." he replied, "We know about all of SPR so to say..."
"What?"
"To answer your second question. We'll be taking the two of you into our custody for a limited amount of time."
"What? You want me to do some exorcism on a place that has no activity at all?!"
The tall man took off his helmet, a foreigner. By now I was pretty sure this had been the guy who got kicked out of the office no less than twice.
"No, there's no need to."
I smirked, "I see. It was all a lie."
The man laughed.
"That's very like you. Very sharp. Yes, it was all a lie."
I didn't like the tone of this. He tried to keep a friendly facade, but who knew what could happen from now on.
"Then what do you want - Kidnap us? Bribe for money?"
The foreign man shook his head.
"...I swear, if you lay a hand on that girl..." I threatened.
"Rest assured. We won't hurt her."
"Stop pulling me this shit. If anything you already did. She just passed out from being chased around by the likes of you."
The younger boy casted a glance at the girl and sighed.
"It's not us who made that girl fall asleep in your car and it's not like she's dead."
"Shut up bastard!"
The boy jumped a little from my reaction and I took this as a chance to attack. I ran toward him, but the other man intervened by standing between us.
"Stop right here."
Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around only to see someone I never expected to be there. Out of shock I fell back a few steps. There were only a few seconds to study the face, before the men held me and covered my mouth with a damp cloth.