I struggled to break away from my captor but it was to no avail.
"Calm down." A familiar low voice said and I relaxed in spite of myself and the situation I was in. "Why are you following me?" He asked as he released his hand from my mouth. I turned to face Naru and glared up at him defiantly.
"I wasn't following you." I said quickly but he only raised an eyebrow at me.
"Really? You just happened to be going this way as well?" He asked sceptically and I nodded. "So where were you going?"
"For a walk." I made up on the spot. "I wanted some air after a stressful day."
"And that's why you ran down the stairs after me and stood on a bin to see where I was going?" He said coldly. How had he known? I stuttered in response but he cut me off before I could form proper words. "I suggest you go home immediately. The streets can be dangerous at this time of night."
"Yeah! Yeah! Whatever you say Naru-chan!" I said loudly and started to back away from him but he shouted after me.
"What did you just call me?" He said fiercely. "Where did you hear that?!" His face had lost its mask of calm control. Had I stumbled onto something?
"Someone else calls you that?" I asked nervously. "I suppose I can't be the first person to come up with narcissistic Naru-chan."
My explanation seemed to put him slightly at ease and so I continued to move away from him.
He watched me go. Scowling, I started to walk home. Every now and then looking over my shoulder for someone following me; but there was no one. Or at least, I didn't see anyone.
I arrived home a few minutes later and let myself in. I shut the door behind me and rested against it.
So I couldn't write down what had happened for fear of my friend's lives and if I suddenly died in a freak accident, no one would question it really. Both my close friends would admit to me being a clumsy oaf and no one else would raise a fuss.
Slowly, my body sank down the door and I felt tears come to my eyes. I couldn't deal with it. I hadn't asked for this to happen! And there was no one I could talk to about it. Having everything written down somewhere had made me feel slightly better, like I wasn't alone, but now I couldn't even do that.
I was so scared that night that I barely slept and when I did, I still had one of my kitchen knives clutched in my hand. I didn't like how defenceless I felt in my own home. I still didn't know how he had gotten in in the first place!
Early on Saturday morning I woke with a jolt of fear; my dreams had been filled with strange black garbed men grabbing and hurting me.
Sighing, I looked around my bedroom. There was no one here to hurt me. I crept out of my bedroom, hand firmly wrapped around my knife and checked the rest of my flat, but I was alone. Damn I was getting paranoid.
I had agreed to meet Keiko and Michiru at the library today for a study session so we could teach our strengths to each other. I yawned and headed for a shower, hoping the cold water would wake me up.
It did not have the intended effect.
I left the shower wanting nothing more than to curl up in bed and sleep but I was too scared. Perhaps I should move apartments? But he would know. I don't know how, but he would know and follow me. And asking for a sleepover at someone else's house wasn't going to help, that might only put them in danger. What if he thought I was telling them?
I forced myself to eat some food even though I did not feel hungry at all, and then packed my school bag with the relevant books.
An hour or so later, I found myself in the local library and desperately trying to stay awake but it wasn't working very well. Keiko was explaining trigonometry to Michiru and I was supposed to be listening but I couldn't help but let my head droop slightly.
I could listen with my head on the desk, couldn't I?
Yes, this was comfortable and I could hear every word of her explanation…
"Mai? Mai? Are you alright?" Keiko was gently shaking my shoulder. I woke with a start and stared around with wide fearful eyes. "You fell asleep?"
"We're still in the library?" I asked, wiping sleepy dust from eyes.
"Yeah, it's almost lunchtime!"
"Oh! I'm sorry for falling asleep! I didn't get much rest last night!" I explained rapidly.
"It's fine!" Michiru reassured me. "I'm going to go and pick us up some lunch; do you want anything in particular?"
"No, I'm not fussy." I replied. I watched my friend go and then Keiko posed a question to me.
"What kept you up all last night? Don't tell me Shibuya-senpai finally texted you?!"
"No, he didn't text me." I replied, not meeting her eye for fear of her seeing that it had been that man that had kept me up until the small hours.
"Aww, that's a shame. He was so cute!" Keiko gushed.
Keiko looked like she was going to say something else, but I interrupted her before her questions could become any more awkward; I hated lying to my friends.
"I'm just going to pop to the loo."
Keiko nodded and I got up from the table. Hurriedly, I headed straight for the toilets and splashed water on my face. The cold liquid made me feel a little more awake.
It was at that moment a new thought struck me: I was in a library.
Libraries held all sorts of information, including records of people and where they lived and businesses and stuff. What if I could find out about him here?
I rushed out of the bathroom and down the corridors of books until I found the shelves regarding the local area. There were several directories covering all of Tokyo. I pulled out the ones for mine and the surrounding districts. One by one I checked the list of names, but there was no Shibuya Kazuya in any of them.
Cursing I began returning the books. I knew Shibuya Kazuya was an alias but still, I thought he might have used it for more than just talking to me and my friends. Once all the directories were back on their shelf, I walked back to Keiko.
"You were a while, are you okay?"
"Yeah, of course I am!" I replied earnestly. Michiru arrived back a moment later and we ate our lunch before beginning our biology homework.
Around 4pm, we packed up and headed our separate ways home. I remembered that I needed to pick up some food and diverted to the local convenience store.
Once I'd bought the ingredients for my dinner, I left the shop and began the short walk home. I entered my flat, put away my food and then checked the rest of my apartment for strange creepy men. But it was empty, not that that made me feel much better. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched.
Meanwhile, several streets away, two men sat in a lonely hotel room. The younger was studying a crumpled piece of paper. The other was watching out of the window.
"Read this will you?" The younger man passed the piece of paper over. The elder took it and held it up to the light.
"Who wrote this?" He said tersely. "You said you weren't seen." He added, almost accusingly.
"What do you think?" The younger man asked, ignoring his companion's obvious concern and nodding towards the document.
"Right-handed and probably female; it's reasonably neat." The man read over it again. "They are very observant, not only to physical details but to the portrayal of your emotions."
"I thought so too from the kanji I could read."
"So who wrote this?" The elder man asked again.
"The apartment I was using as a sniping point last week was rented by a sixteen year old high school girl. By all accounts she shouldn't've been back for another few hours, but her school trip was cut short." The younger man explained quickly. "She walked in on me."
"And you didn't dispose of her?"
"She's an orphan." He said by way of an explanation.
"I see." The older man sighed. "What do you want to do about her?"
"She will keep quiet for now. She's quite protective of her friends." The younger man said quietly. "But she might be useful."
Author's note:
I would usually liken writing characters in first person to wearing different items of clothing. For example, Lucy Heartfilia (Fairy Tail) would be my favourite pair of sweatpants; slip them on and no problems. Usually, Taniyama Mai would be a pair of jeans; mostly comfortable after a bit of a wriggle. Finally Oliver Davis would be like a corset; bloody awkward to get on and uncomfortable to wear. However after writing Emails, I have found I keep slipping back into Oliver-style writing and Mai has suddenly become difficult to write! Ah well, I will struggle on!
I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the UK, we have things like the Yellow Pages and the BT Directories which are books of business and peoples addresses/phone numbers. You can opt out of being in them, but that was the basis for Mai's search in the library!
Finally, I am struggling to see how I will fit a few of the other GH characters into this story. I think I've worked out Lin, Masako and probably Yasuhara and John. But I'd love to hear any suggestions for the others!
So please review and let me know what you think!
