Chapter 9
After Mai finished her drink, Yasuhara shooed her off to take a bath with strict instructions to get thoroughly warmed up after having spent the whole day outside in the cold. Naru watched her leave the base before finally turning to glance at Lin.
"Lin, make Mai a new protective charm," he said quietly.
Lin immediately got up from his chair to get the necessary items to make the charm when he paused and turned to look at Naru and Yasuhara. "What about the two of you?"
"I have the one Takigawa-san made for all of us before," Yasuhara answered.
Naru shook his head indicating he didn't need one either.
"Shochou, why didn't you ask Taniyama-san what the voice told her to do?" Yasuhara asked. "Weren't you curious to know exactly what it said?"
Naru cocked his head to one side slightly.
"She said it told her to 'use thekuji against Gene and to hurt you'," Yasuhara said. "I don't think she realised she said it out loud when she told me she vaguely remembered standing in the garage staring at the tools in there telling herself that she didn't want to hurt you and that she didn't want to hurt your older brother. Whatever it was that was trying to get her to do something, it couldn't get her to do anything to seriously harm you, but it did manage to get her to slap you. Perhaps because it was something that Taniyama-san wanted to do at some point? Perhaps recently?" he said pointedly.
Naru looked at Yasuhara sharply. "What are you trying to get at, Yasuhara-san?" he asked coldly.
Yasuhara gave Naru his professional, inscrutable smile. "Why Shibuya-san, why would you think I'm trying to make a point?" he asked innocently. "After all, you're aware of how Taniyama-san feels about being out here right now but insist on saying and doing things that make her feel even more insecure. Ah! Could it be that you actually let her slap you because a tiny part of you somewhere thought that you deserved it?"
Naru refused to answer and stared pointedly at the monitors.
Yasuhara chuckled softly. Given the lack of data that had been gathered so far, he was fairly certain the monitors weren't going to show anything of interest in the Nishimura house. "Just so you know," he said mildly, "right now, Taniyama-san's terrified that whatever got her to slap you will still be able to make her hurt your brother."
Naru sighed. "She's supposed to be professional in her conduct," he said mildly annoyed. "And she said herself that she knew she should've stopped herself."
"Hmm, true," Yasuhara agreed. "But rather than seeing Taniyama-san the professional, right now, I'd rather see Taniyama-san be herself in all senses of the word including impulsively running into danger."
"...In that case, perhaps you would like to save her from herself as well?" Naru said acidly.
"Ahahaha," Yasuhara laughed. "You do a much better job at reading how she'll act and keeping her under control."
Naru shook his head. "I don't think anyone can predict her actions," he said almost as though talking to himself.
"...Taniyama-san hasn't been sleeping much, has she?" Yasuhara asked quietly suddenly changing the subject slightly.
Naru frowned as he glanced at him.
"She didn't want to sleep the first night, I really doubt she got much sleep last night, and with what happened today..." Yasuhara shook his head. "She won't be able to keep this up much longer and it's going to affect her judgement a lot more, too."
When Mai re-entered the base, she found Naru watching over the monitors alone. She hesitated slightly in the doorway when Naru said, "Mai, tea."
Her eyes widened slightly in surprise, as she automatically responded, "'Kay."
She slipped into the next room, quickly putting away her things. She paused briefly to ensure that she had her charm bag around her neck, before hurrying to the kitchen.
In the kitchen, she found Yasuhara putting the finishing touches on a late night meal for everyone. "Ah, Yasuhara-san, I'm sorry I didn't help out with that at all," she said apologetically.
Yasuhara shook his head. "Not at all, Taniyama-san. Ah, you're making the boss tea?" he asked amused.
"Yeah. He's acting as if nothing happened earlier," she said a bit uncertainly.
Yasuhara chuckled amused. "Taniyama-san, are you aware the he hasn't had anything to drink since late this morning?"
Mai looked surprised. "That's not very likely now, is it, Yasuhara-san? Besides, how would you know that?"
"He and Lin-san have both been busy watching the monitors and reading through the reports," he replied easily. "And since there were no new dishes waiting in the sink since this morning..."
Mai cocked her head slightly as she poured tea for everyone and put the cups on a tray.
"Didn't he have you make tea when you got back?" she asked surprised.
Yasuhara put together a tray with the dinner items on it and they both left the kitchen.
"He didn't want any then" Yasuhara said.
Mai carefully balanced her tray on one arm as she slid the shoji screen open. She then proceeded inside the room and set her tray down on the low table in the base. Yasuhara set his tray down after Mai. His glasses glinted suspiciously as he glanced at Naru.
"And are you aware that he doesn't always drink the tea that I make?" he asked.
Mai took Naru his tea carefully putting it on the table beside him. She then moved to serve Lin-san who had since returned to the base.
Mai cocked her head to one side as she glanced at Yasuhara. "What are you talking about Yasuhara-san? Naru always drinks tea. Except for the first couple of times when the tea I made was literally undrinkable, he's always drunk his tea," she said confused.
Yasuhara chuckled. "Exactly. He's always drunk his tea when you made it," he said. "He didn't drink any of the tea I made yesterday. And that's probably why he came to the kitchen when you didn't bring him his tea right away."
"Eh?" Mai asked surprised. She turned to look at Naru, but he was pointedly ignoring their conversation. "Eh??"
"He deserved being hit for the way he made you feel the past couple of days," Yasuhara said cheerfully, "so consider yourselves even."
