Chapter 10: The Delusions

I'm not here to mourn for Kyouya Ootori.

"They were really good people, weren't they?" Tsunade huddled her blanket about her person and plopped onto the floor beside Diana. "Izaya and Hongshu. That Hongshu guy was kind of a looker, you know."

"…Yeah," Diana said, looking at the center of the green, hypnotizing spiral rug that dominated the floor space of Tsunade's bedroom.

"Witnessing it must have been terrible," Tsunade said, pulling out the laptop she had tucked into the blanket with her. "I've never seen you like this. Even after your dog died." She chuckled. "I amend that statement. You were making dead dog jokes back then. Seriously, I think I was more disturbed."

"…Yeah."

"Diana, are you listening to me?"

"…Yeah."

"Diana…oh, you missed your interview then too, right?"

"…What?" Diana looked at Tsunade. "I completely forgot. It's been a few da—hours ago. What time is it?"

"Ten. Cake time?"

Diana forced a smile, wincing at the thought of trying to use a fork. Tsunade's brother, a doctor, had already splinted her right hand and had moved her displaced finger back into place. The drugs were making her slow to respond. "Like you're high or something," Tsunade had commented before her brother had responded with a "Shut it, pipsqueak."

"Say 'Aaaaaah'!" Tsunade had already brought back the two slices of cake and held a fork up to Diana's mouth. Diana looked at the cake. Vanilla with blue ice cream frosting.

Diana felt a lump developing in her throat. "Tsu—" She bit her lip, unable to finish.

Tsunade frowned. "What's wrong? You don't want it?"

Diana smiled through the lump in her throat and opened her mouth. "Mmm. Your brother made it, didn't he?"

"You're getting to know his style, huh?"

Diana ran her teeth over her tongue and winced. "You mean his tendency to double the sugar content? Ugh, I can't believe you can eat this thing."

"Fine! Be that way! I'm not feeding you anymore!"

"Good!"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. Jet black. A lot of Japanese had jet black eyes. Diana looked away.

"Tsunade, can you do something for me?"

"Yeah? After sneering at my cake?"

"Your brother's cake."

"Ungrateful toad. What do you want?"

"I need you to help me find somebody."

"Who?"

"Uhhh…" Wait.

"What do you mean 'Uhhh'?"

"I don't remember his full name."

Tsunade groaned. "What do you mean find him, then?"

"I need his address and phone number. His name's Mori. Used to be part of a host club."

Tsunade looked at her.

"A high school host club!" Diana exclaimed. "I didn't attend it!"

"Why do you need his information?" Tsunade put down the cake and turned to her laptop. "Is he hot? He has to be. Part of a host club. A high school host club, you said?"

"Ouran."

"How do you spell that?" A few clicks and clacks later, "Oh, there he is. …Oooh. Diana, I didn't realize this was your type. He's so…"

"That's not my type. Stop jumping to conclusions."

"That's a relief. He looks terrifying."

"He's actually really kind."

"Oh yeah?"

"And insightful. It's amazing. It's like he can see into the human soul. And his voice is calming."

Tsunade regarded her out of the corner of her eyes. "Uh huuuuh. Are you turning into a stalker now, Diana?"

"No, seriously, did you find the information?"

"Still looking. Takashi Morinozuka."

"You Japs and your names. Always a mouthful."

"Watch it, white girl."

"Sorry. …Tsunade…"

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry I didn't get you a present. I had one picked out…" Diana looked at her purse sitting amongst the open textbooks and lip glosses and the lamp and CD cases and bowls and unwashed cups stained with dried coffee on Tsunade's desk. "I decided you needed something better at the last minute."

"Damn right I do."

Diana sent her an amused glance. She had no idea what Diana had almost given her.

"By the way, aren't you going to call your parents to let them know you're all right?"

Diana cocked her brows. "You want me to tell them there was a terrorist attack?"

"Well, haven't they seen the news?"

"No. Most likely they won't find out about it until my mom goes into work on Monday. Just as long as I sound okay on the phone, I won't have to address it."

"Found it! Here, I'm putting it into your cell phone."

"Thanks. Can we go drive over and see him tomorrow?"

Tsunade choked on her cake. "What?"

Diana sank into her own blanket cocoon. "This is important, Tsunade. We… We both know someone from the accident."

Tsunade's mouth became a perfect 'o'. She took another bite. "I'll have to ask Yuri if he's all right with it. He usually has work tomorrow."

"It's okay. If I can just be dropped off…" Well, it's not like Izaya will be chasing me anymore this time. "I'll be okay if I can just be dropped off there."

"If you say so." Tsunade went back to her cake. "Give him my regards."

Diana met her eyes and after a moment, she smiled. "That won't be necessary, I think."

"Oh. Your mutual friend is okay?"

Diana closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. "He's going to be. I'll make it so."

"That him?" Yuri stalled the car. "Nine twenty-five. He's five minutes early as well."

Diana moved to unlock the door. Oops. Her right hand wouldn't help her unlock anything. She unlocked it with her left hand and stepped out onto the chilly road, looking over the relatively deserted roadway at the tall man standing in front of the apartment.

She thanked Yuri and crossed the street, hugging Tsunade's sweater tighter about herself and wondering if it would start raining. There were goosebumps along her back. She waved goodbye to Yuri, then faced the figure at the top of a mini-flight of steps. He was wearing a navy cardigan and cargo pants, gray eyes sharp, though red-rimmed.

"Mori," she said.

He raised his brows.

"Wait, you don't know me yet. Sorry. Diana Reed." She extended a hand and shivered when their hands met.

"Come inside," he said. "It is cold."

The apartment was spotless clean, cleaner than Kaoru's. Or so she thought until she saw past the sofa set. The living room was pretty much a fluffy ground zero. A young, blond man slept amidst a myriad stuffed bunnies. He was covered in bunnies. His blanket might have been bunnies. Might have been.

Mori tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped. He pointed up the stairs—they have stairs inside the separate apartments?—and led her into what she believed were his quarters.

There was a roll along the side of the wall, where he must have slept, and a sparse desk with a table lamp. The bookshelves were filled with martial arts trophies. There was a single, body-length mirror hanging from a closet door. The wide center of the room seemed large enough to spar in.

She felt prickling at the back of her neck. Last time she had seen Mori, he was comforting Kaoru. That was after he had done some mourning of his own. That was at a point when he favored her because he thought she was Kaoru's girlfriend. If she didn't watch what she said, she might end up getting more than a punch in the stomach and a smack across the face.

God, she was hurting everywhere.

"Did you know him from the host club?"

She looked up. She didn't expect him to speak first. "What makes you think that?"

"You knew my name," said Mori. "And, excuse me for not recognizing you. I thought that might have had something to do with it."

"Oh. You thought I came for comfort?" Diana thought back to her text. Must talk about Ootori. Need your help. Diana shook her head. The fact that he was willing to let in an absolute stranger, to comfort someone else when he himself needed it much more. "You're amazing," she said with a smile. Then she wiped away the smile. "I'm not here to mourn for Kyouya Ootori."

She liked the look of surprise on his face. "I'm here to save him," she went on. "And everything I am going to say is going to sound crazy, I already sound crazy but…but…a very dear friend of yours—"ours "—once told me, you don't judge. You just listen, you understand. You support. Mori in a nutshell. I need that. I need that right now. So, please, listen."

Mori said nothing. Diana looked down and fingered her purse. "I don't know how I can prove to you what I am about to say is true. I can only proffer the things that I know at the moment in an effort to earn your trust. The bomb yesterday was on the right, rear side of the double-decker. Tomorrow, you are going to visit Kaoru to tell him to come back. On Tuesday morning, the Japanese police force is going to declare a man named Mitsuo Kubo responsible for yesterday's attack. On Tuesday night, Kyouya's funeral. On Wednesday, Tamaki and Haruhi will surprise visit Kaoru and Hikaru will fly in and stay with you and Hunny. Oh, that must have been Hunny. And on Thursday, Hikaru will try to go and—" I'm not there anymore… "—he will surprise visit Kaoru as well. I—I know that—"

He wasn't saying anything. Why wasn't he saying anything?

"I…" She looked up and started. "Wait. Mori. Are you sleeping?"

He blinked.

Wiping away her tears, she said, "You are not going to believe me when I say this, but I…I can go back…and change what happened. I want to save those people, I want to stop the bomb. But I need help. I need to know how Mitsuo Kubo organized the attack. I need to know how to stop it. I have to find him and talk to him before the government catches him, and I may not even have 36 hours to do it."

Mori looked at her, then turned around and headed back downstairs.

"Wait…what…" Diana followed after him. "Mori…wait! …Say something!"

"Those people are gone."

Diana stopped halfway down the flight. "No…you can't be saying that. Not you."

"Please, do not put yourself in harm's way." Mori stopped in front the breakfast bar. "And show yourself the way out."

He thinks I am deluding myself. "Mori, I… I know Kaoru's secret…the one that Tamaki and Haruhi and Hunny don't know."

Mori turned.

"And I know that Kyouya would never have wanted the club to splinter the way it did over the last four years. And that Kyouya warned against using 'password' for a password, the way Kaoru's laptop is set up right now. And…" The floor was blurring before her. "And you told me that Kaoru was the most compassionate member of the host club seven years ago, and if I judged him now I would miss a lot about him."

Kaoru wouldn't remember her.

"Please," she whispered, "I don't have anyone else whom I can ask this favor right now. If you think I am delusional, could you possibly go along with it until Tuesday morning? I just need to find Kubo. Just that long…"

"Takashi." Hunny stood stock-still in the semi-darkness of the living room. "What secret?"

Mori gave Diana a sidelong glance, as if daring her to speak a word. They could hear the flush of a toilet in some distant room of another apartment, and footsteps from above the ceiling. The sun had broken through the clouds and was creeping at the base of the living room curtains. A slit of light fell across Hunny's face and glinted off of his rumpled hair.

Ding ding ding!

Diana squeaked. The two men looked at the doorway right away. "Tamaki's the only one who rings like that," said Mori.

"Takashi, you'll tell me, won't you?" said Hunny.

"I need to go," said Diana. "Is there a back way out? I'll wait at the coffee shop I saw on the corner."

Hunny hopped onto the sofa and leaped over its back, landing at the curtains. With a sharp jerk, the blinds behind them crashed aside. Diana squinted. A fire escape.

"Thanks, Hunny!" she said as she hopped out amid the sound of more vigorous bell-ringing. "Come find me. I'll explain later!"

Hunny nodded and slid shut the door, closing the blinds and leaving Diana six storeys aboveground. The world beneath the fading blue sneakers Tsunade had lent her had eight, slick, black grille steps per floor. Her shins looked like the surface of the moon this morning, and every step since had hurt like hell.

Forty-eight steps later, Diana considered the final ladder hanging seven feet up from the street. She had bit her tongue for so long to balance out the pain that she didn't think she could unlock her jaw. The drop was going to kill her.

"No, no, no," Diana said, breathing in and leaning over the ladder. The alleyway was completely deserted except for a garbage receptacle along the brick wall. "Diana, you climb down and you'll be dangling only two feet into the air." Her jeans' pocket caught on the top rung of the ladder and she fidgeted, wincing at the steady pulses emanating from her shins. "Just go down the ladder, go down—crap!" She looked at her purse, which had dropped from her shoulder. She looked down the length of the alleyway. Still no one. "Okay. No pressure. The purse isn't about to sprout legs and run off. Or…what is it doing…"

The purse in question had grown a furry tail and was dragging itself away from her.

"This can't be happening. HEY!" Diana leaped from the ladder. "OUCH! OUCH! Owwwww… FUCK! Dammit! NO! STUPID CAT! GIVE THAT BACK TO ME! GIVE IT BACK!"

"REEED-CHAAAAAN!" Mitsukuni Haninozuka barreled across the aisles of the coffee shop and gathered Diana's head and hair into a hug.

"Uuuuh…"

"Reed-chan, did we keep you waiting long?" Hunny took a seat across from her and picked up a booklet advertising the Peppermint Salt Caramel Brulee.

"Excuse me," said Mori, also taking a seat beside her.

Diana placed her cell phone flat across the table. "Here are my notes on Mitsuo Kubo." She scrolled through them with her finger. "It's three thirty now, so we have less than thirty hours left."

"You want to talk to this guy?" asked Hunny, examining the picture from the article she was showing them. "He's in the biggest prison in Japan. He's in Tokyo. How are we possibly going to talk to him?"

"He can't have been if he planted that bomb yesterday morning. Or earlier. Come to think of it, we should go to the prison to find out how he got out, and the bus terminals to find out how he got in and did his doing. But we also have to find out which terminal it was. He has to have an accomplice as well. There's no way he could have busted out of prison on his own and gathered all of that material in…wait, how long did he have?"

"Stop."

Hunny and Diana traded glances. "Mori?" said Diana.

"What are you doing, precisely? What exactly do you hope to accomplish that the police cannot do right now?" Mori looked

"Or the yakuza," added Hunny.

"The yakuza?" Diana frowned. "Wait! The Ootori's have those. I forgot about that."

"May I take your order please?"

Mori waited for the waiter to take off in a quest for the three cheesecakes Hunny ordered, then said, "There is nothing you can do to change the past. If Kubo is going to be arrested on Tuesday as you say, then let it be. What is our interference going to contribute to this?"

Diana looked hard at Mori for a moment. She addressed Hunny instead. "Hunny, do you want to see Kyouya again?"

"Miss Reed." Mori's voice was dangerous.

"Do you want to see him alive?"

Mori was rising already.

"Takashi, sit down." Hunny matched Diana's eyes. "We don't have anything to lose, right?"

She couldn't tell if he was addressing her or Mori. Hunny flashed a magnanimous smile. A Red Velvet Cheesecake floated into her vision and came to a stop in front of Hunny's face. Then an Oreo Delight. Then a Carrot-Cake Cheesecake.

"Do you want some?" Hunny asked Diana, arming himself with a knife and a fork.

"No," Diana said, a little lost. She didn't really believe he ordered three cheesecakes just for himself until Mori lined them up from him.

Hunny stuck a bite of Red Velvet into his face before continuing. "The way I see it—" he started.

("Hunny, don't talk with your mouth full," intoned Mori.)

"—is that…mmm! …There's nothing left to lose. It'll be like playing detective, Takashi! Ah-oom!" Hunny took another grandiose bite and held up the last half of the cheesecake for the next one. "Let's play!"

"It sounds like a dangerous game," said Mori.

"He he," Diana gave an awkward laughed. "You wouldn't say."

Mori clasped his hands together and rested his chin upon them. "So where do we begin?"

Author's Notes: If anyone is curious as to the thought that goes into writing this story...

Character Development: (smug grin) I am actually quite pleased with the way Diana is turning out. Given the first chapter from her perspective, she was so...happy. It was wonderful writing the beginning of that chapter; the narrative style and descriptions themselves lifted my spirits. Then when she met Kaoru, she was so insecure, so much out of her element, so much at his mercy. I was actually quite concerned regarding how I would turn the Diana of the past into the Diana that Kyouya comes to know. Now this Diana just barges into Mori and Hunny's life and generally expects their help, which came to me as a complete surprise. I couldn't forcibly make her more...shy...polite. The story just writes itself on its own.

Frameworks: The reporter makes me happy too, actually. As some of you might have noticed, I tried framing this story in several ways. For example, the little bits of reporting in the Kaoru Arc used for transitions. I regret that I was unable to make consistent use of that technique, nor was there a particular standard as to when it was invoked. Sometimes it was a tool for revealing information that I didn't want to explicitly state. Sometimes there was a fantastic line I just had to include. Regardless of that, however, I found those reports especially delightful because those reports technically end up un-existing. (Un-existing! Can you believe!) Furthermore, the technique ends in this arc in a logical manner: Diana's interactions with the reporter in this arc prevented it from happening. However, were I to write a novel, this lack of consistency would probably be unappreciated; once a reader is accustomed to a particular structure to the story, just as they become accustomed to the rules of the universe the author creates, breaking that structure tends to be distracting and pulls the reader out of the story. My sincerest apologies for this.

I'll continue this discussion in the next chapter. ;) See you later!