The Sweet Taste of Death: Chapter 10
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Later in Mai and Takigawa's room:
"Mai!" Bou-san couldn't stand it anymore. The thought of Mai lying to him the whole time about her injuries just got to him. "If Naru knew, why didn't I? Masako even!"
He took her by the shoulders and pushed her down onto his bed in a sitting position, took a chair from the far right corner of the room, and sat in front of her, waiting for a response. Unfortunately, while Mai could wait silently all day, Takigawa was as impatient as Naru when it came to stuff like this.
Assuming her silence was a form of rebellion, Takigawa shot up in his chair. "Why wont you tell me Mai?!"
"Don't cry now," she said sarcastically.
"Look, Mai. We're all just very worried about you. Whenever you get hurt just tell one of us, okay?" Takigawa took her hand and held it tightly.
The clock ticked by but Mai had yet to say a word. Finally, she sighed. "Fine, but can I go talk to Naru now?"
"Sure," he smiled wearily and his friend's glare.
Mai stood up quickly, glad to finally leave. She wondered down the hallway swiftly, knowing her time was short. She remembered that there was a camera angled directly towards the direction in which she was going since her little exploration last time.
She'd have to hurry fast.
Missing a stop at the stairwell, Mai ran as fast as she could pass Umiko and Seiji's rooms and into another corridor. She stared at the tiny camera as she jogged away, smirking in its direction. "Too bad, Naru," she grinned.
Once she finally reached the library she panted, wondering what time it was. She looked for a clock desperately because sooner or later Takigawa would come looking for her telling her it was time for bed.
She'd have to move fast.
She stumbled even farther into the depths of the dark room. "There's something in here that's calling to me, I know it. I can feel it," she whispered, blowing away the coat of dust that lay on books due to years left unkempt.
She made her way over to a deserted desk in the back and sat down in the creaky old chair that lay behind it.
"For an old desk, it looks pretty modern," Mai commented, leaning back slightly.
She picked up an old dusty book that lay abandoned and flipped it open. "A diary?" she questioned, carefully fingering its soft leather covers as she read the first entry.
5/12/2008
Dear Diary,
Wow! This is my first time over at Seiji-kun's house and he gave me this cute diary as a gift for my birthday. His sister sure is nice, too. But I've yet to see his father. You know, I'm actually thinking of leaving this diary in here so that every time I come over I'll right an entry. Seiji says that I'm 'drawn' to this room so he's dubbed it mine from now on. How sweet! I guess I'll keep it here. Anyway, Seiji just called me down for dinner, so I'd better go, huh? Bye!
Reika~
"Looks like I'll be keeping this as a little souvenir," Mai said slyly, placing black book in her lap so she wouldn't forget it. Carefully, she opened a heavier-than-expected drawer to her right and looked to see what was inside–
–Only to find…
A tape recorder?
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(After everyone was sent of to their respective rooms, our favorite narcissist was kept busy…)
Naru, who was currently reviewing the tapes from earlier that day, didn't exactly know what face to make. On the screen which was from the camera in the east wing (which Mai wasn't allowed to go without someone at her side), his assistant had appeared.
And he had told her not to go anywhere alone.
Naru? He was pissed.
And to think, he had seen her only five minutes ago and she hadn't even looked guilty for what she had done even thought they were staring each other right in the face. Or did she?
He couldn't care less, though.
Sure.
"Damnit!" Naru cursed, standing up and stretching.
Lin looked over expectantly. "Has Mai done something reckless again?"
"I think I'll have a talk with her. She better be with Takigawa right now," he replied, his tone frustrated as he left the room in a fit of anger.
Having the urge to ram his head into something, Lin dug in his bag for some Tylenol.
Mai was at it again.
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"Takigawa?" Naru asked as he continuously knocked on the door.
At the fourth bang, the monk finally came to the door. "Geez, what do you want, Naru?" He rubbed his tired eyes and yawned, leaning up against the door frame for support.
"Where's Mai?" Naru wasted no time.
Bou-san stood, clueless. "I…I thought," he began slowly, "I thought she was with you, Naru?"
Suddenly, the truth hit them both. "That little–" the monk started only to be interrupted by Naru.
"Let me guess," he said, a little disappointed in his friend, "she told you she was going to see me?"
Takigawa covered his face with his hands in embarrassment. "Uh…yeah. That's about how it went." He scratched his head. "But where will we find her?"
Naru laughed dangerously, a dark aura surrounding him. Takigawa blanched as his 'boss' turned to face him. "I think I know where she might be," he said creepily.
"Uh," the monk laughed nervously.
"But first," Naru started, returning to a serious state, "I want you to go review the DVR from the camera in the east wing from a few minutes ago, about the time Mai left to find me, and look for her. Call me on my cell if you see anything, okay. Tell Lin about this for me." He gave Takigawa a questioning look as if he were asking if he got all of that.
"And what about you?"
"I'll be searching for her myself."
Bou-san nodded, sending Naru a bidding salute as he left into the base.
"Yo, Lin," he said, sitting in the seat where Naru had previously been.
Lin nodded in acknowledgement and got up to see what the monk was doing. "Apparently Mai's gone missing. Naru knows where she might be so he's looking for her, but he wanted me to check the DVR to see if he was right…I'm guessing."
Lin stood up strait and sighed.
"No wonder Naru was so upset earlier," he commented to himself.
"Ah, so Naru-bou was upset, ne? They're so cute!" Takigawa laughed. The Chinese man smiled behind his hand. Who was the old man now, Bou-san?
He fast-forwarded until 9:34 p.m., when Mai had left 'in search of their boss.' "There!" he said a few seconds later, pausing the DVR as Mai came running down the east wing.
"Mai," he said tiredly. Reaching for his phone, he dialed Naru's number and waited for him to pick up, which he did so on the third ring.
"Yes?" he said, almost demanding.
"Mai is definitely somewhere in the east wing."
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"Oh my god!" Mai yelled as she pushed the chair back and stood up, forgetting the time. Mai quickly closed the drawer and picked up the little black book of Reika's past.
How could she possibly be so caught up in that stupid tape recorder that she could forget the time? Naru had probably already figured her out…
The door to the library opened letting light flood into the room.
"Crap," Mai whispered. Panting, she thought fast and hid under the desk, mentally kicking herself for not finding a better hiding place.
The perpetrator's footsteps slowed to a stop in front of the desk.
Mai winced as he/she slammed their hand on the wood above her. She put a hand over her heart, willing it to stop beating so hard. She was afraid they might hear it. What if they could sense fear? Like dogs?
Then, she curled up into a ball to stop the shivering.
"Mai," the stranger said dangerously. "Come out right now."
But this man was no stranger. No…
He was Naru.
"Naru?" Mai whispered, fearing his reply.
Naru traveled around the desk and kneeled down in front of his assistant. "What the hell are you doing here, Mai?" he asked with anger evident in his course voice. And it also sounded like he wanted a real good answer.
He held her by the crook of her arm and pulled her up (making sure she didn't hit her head on the edge of the wood), refusing to let her go no matter how much she said it hurt. "One would think you would have learned your lesson, and yet you always come back for more."
Mai grabbed onto his shirt and handed him the diary forcefully. "Naru, there's something important I need to show yo–" She was about to point to the drawer, but was interrupted by her enraged boss.
"Mai, you're not an onmyoji like Lin. You're not a priestess or a medium, either. You can't protect yourself with only two incantations. You're not strong enough–"
Tears stung Mai's red eyes. "You mean not strong enough for you?!"
"Shut up, Mai!" Naru growled back, his grip on her tightened.
Mai's eyes widened. She had never seen him this mad in her life. He had just raised his voice. He had only done this once before on the case where they had first met Yasuhara. "Naru…"
Naru angrily captured her chin in his hand when she tried to look away from him. She closed her eyes in fear.
Reconsidering his actions, Naru loosened his grasp on her arm a little. "You don't seem to understand the position that you're in, Mai. Stop doing things on your own. You're too weak right now," he began again. "What if that thing that attacked you the other night in the kitchen came back to finish the job tonight and found you alone in this library? What if…what if I weren't here?"
She stared at him and his eyes that had drifted downwards onto the floor in between them.
"You were worried." It was a plain statement rather than a question.
Naru almost frowned, but looked away instead. "So you are stupid. Not that I ever doubted it."
The insulted Mai glared at him and slapped his hand away. "That is not the point!"
"You're right for once. That isn't the point," Naru started, tightening his grip once more, "What are you doing in this place?"
Mai winced and tried pulling back nervously. "Uh, well…I wanted to investigate a little bit. I found Reika-chan's diary," she motioned to the book Naru was currently carrying under his arm (how he managed to do that, Mai was clueless). "And in that drawer there is–"
Naru frowned and rubbed his aching head. "Investigate? You can't just go off by yourself and do these things. There's a reason we haven't exorcised this part of the house yet. It's because the Takuro family has asked us not to. We have to respect the homeowner's privacy."
"Well how was I supposed to know, Naru?"
"You were supposed to ask, which you didn't."
Silence.
"That's still not the point," Mai fussed, throwing her unoccupied hand into the air wildly. "In that drawer, I found a t–"
"Mai!" Takigawa came stumbling into the dark room. Leaning against the desk behind the couple, he waited until he could catch his breath again.
Naru dropped the hand that was holding onto Mai's arm in a painful grip.
…But when Bou-san finally caught his breath:
"You…You idiot! How could you do that to me? I really thought you were going to go talk to Naru. And you know that paranormal activity is at least more dangerous than when it's light out. It's freaking 9:46 p.m.! Are you trying to kill me? I thought–"
And the rant continued on…
"Where's Lin? Is he still at the base?" Naru questioned the monk, ignoring Mai as she pulled on and wrinkled his black shirt.
"Yeah," Bou-san replied.
"Naru!" Mai tugged more.
"I told him that–"
"Naru–"
"Because I'd–"
"Naru–!"
"What, Mai?" As Naru finally reached his limit, he asked his assistant almost threateningly.
"There's…" she paused. The tape recorder wasn't that important. And Mai certainly didn't want her boss to think she was stupid. Bringing up the diary was a better plan, anyway, "There's important information in that diary." Mai practically screamed, but then covered her mouth hoping that no one was listening in on them. "I'm sorry," she apologized quietly.
Naru pulled out the diary from under his arm and flipped it open, reading the first entry.
"Y–Yeah…" she quietly assured herself.
"Mai," Takigawa started, placing a comforting arm around her shoulder.
Naru sighed. "We'll investigate this later. We should head back before Lin starts wondering," he said, shooing the two along until they had reached the door.
"But, Naru," Mai insisted, trying to wriggle in Bou-san's fierce grip around her shoulders
"Mai, I have made a decision and I will not change my mind. We'll have to deal with this tomorrow," he said strictly, but then in a quieter tone, he turned to Bou-san. "Take this," and he handed him the diary. Naru took over for Takigawa and held Mai by the shoulders, pushing her down the hallway.
They stopped in front of Mai and Takigawa's room. "Go to sleep, Mai. We'll review this in the morning," he said and waved them off to bed.
All was silent in between the two once they had gotten inside the room. She figured Bou-san was still pretty pissed at her for the whole lying thing.
"You know Mai," he started, his voice quiet, "I thought you'd do the right thing…But I guess I was wrong."
"I thought I was–"
"How, Mai?! Huh? You thought you were doing the right thing by lying to me? What if you had to re-live this?" Takigawa grabbed Mai's arm, his grip almost as fixed as Naru's and pointed to her wounded skin. "What if it was worse?"
Mai just stared at her arm and then back at him.
"I was so worried. And you should've seen Naru's face when he had realized what happened." He said. He was completely serious, and she could tell.
Mai looked up shyly and twiddled her fingers. "What…what did his face look like?"
"Aha!" Takigawa laughed painfully as he withheld his tongue. "Why are you interested?"
"You know very well why I'm interested, Bou-san," Mai blushed.
"Well, if you really want to know…" he left her hanging.
Mai slapped him arm playfully. "Yes, I really want to know."
The monk leaned over to Mai and even farther back until his mouth rested against her ear, his breath fanning across her red cheek.
"He looked absolutely frantic."
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Thanks for the totally awesome reviews, you guys. Geez, 90 already? Th–That's like 10 reviews for each chapter! It's all so nice and even!
My mommy calls me queer because I time my food in the microwave for 0:30 instead of 0:33. I mean, are you so lazy that you don't feel like moving your finger an extra inch away to press the freaking 0 button? Burn off some calories while you're at it! And the volume on the T.V. has to end with either a 0 or 5. She turned it up to 32 last night and I got so mad at her; I didn't stop talking and interrupting her show until she turned it to 30.