Chapter 9

"Compliments from Dojima," I said, silently reentering my bedroom with a round clay teacup of coffee. "Black, like you asked."

Lying across the floor, back propped by the front of the couch, she delicately handled the cup.

"No worries," I said. "He has no idea you are here."

"That's a relief. There's no telling what he'd do if he knew I was here. Especially if he was aware..."

"Aware of what?"

"He doesn't know, does he? That I'm a –"

"No. I don't think so."

"Good. Let's keep it that way. For now, at least."

I eased myself on the floor next to her. Her hair was disheveled and tears framed her eyes from yawning. Despite her intentions, she had fallen asleep.

"Say Dojima did know. How would you feel?" I asked.

She looked off, letting the steam wisp and curl around her lips and cheeks. Then she returned and the answer emerged on her eyes. "I could play it to my advantage. Being female has a distinct allowance."

"How so?" I said, dragging Naoto's jacket from the couch and bunching it up to prop my head.

She took a close-eyed, contemplative sip of her coffee. "It would make this ordeal simpler. Perhaps create a diversion from the case. We could meet, not in secrecy, and investigate while Detective Dojima-san has other concerns on his mind."

"That makes enough sense," I mused.

"And it would be easier to get information from him," she added.

"Information?"

"Consider this: if we were to stage a wedding, Dojima would reveal information about your mother to me as an in-law. I can get vital details – how to contact her, for instance."

She articulated her thoughts in such a sleepy softness, with such strange nonchalance that her explanation left me dumbfounded. "Wait. Shouldn't you think I know how to contact my own mother?"

"Do you?" Her foggy eyes drifted to me with a faded smile, treating the conversation like it required no deduction at all.

I let the begrudging answer slip from my lips: "No."

"Perfect. It all makes sense," she said.

"Well a lot of it doesn't make sense to me," I said. "You haven't explained one thing since you got here."

The swelling irritation inside me played no role in Naoto's reply: "That was intentional. But now I'm an open book. Ask away."

Her unfeeling granite eyes regarded me with infuriating passivity. I didn't want to fish for my answers like she so enjoyed. "First of all," I said. "Why does the whole 'couple' thing have to be an act? I mean, you're not acting like a girl. Technically, if Dojima found out he would have stumbled upon you as your true self."

"That's true, and a good observation," said Naoto. "However, I chose to be a man because it grants me certain attitudes. Same with being female. Even when the investigation team found out the truth –" She paused, took a hurried sip of coffee, then added, "Well, let's just say I never forgot when Rise called me 'little missy.'"

"Yeah – but – play deranged teenage romance so you can get information?"

"No," said Naoto. "We were playing a 'what if' game. We agree Dojima is better off in the dark. The wedding plan was only a joke."

"A joke?"

"Yeah." She gave me a slow, sleepy blink. "I am capable of joking."

I rose from the floor and darted toward the door. "Dojima and Nanako left by now. Let yourself out whenever."

I rummaged in the kitchen for breakfast. Found leftover miso soup and began to heat it in a sauce pan, stirring it gently as I heard the creaking patter of steps as Naoto descended the stairs. I felt her presence looming behind me as I watched the broth ripple and then boil.

"I thought you had questions," she said.

"I did," I replied, "But I'm not interested in your answers anymore."

She stayed behind me, still for a long moment as I transferred the meal to a bowl and then reached for a remote and switched on the TV. A male announcer's voice echoed through the living room.

"You also watch the news in the morning?" Naoto remarked.

"Dojima does," I said, switching to the weather.

"Oh."

She continued to stand, arms straight to her side as if unaware how to operate them.

"Are you going to let yourself out?" I said.

"No. You're mad. I don't understand why."

"You should be able to deduce it."

The TV droned between us. Once again, clear skies today and a meteor shower at night. 'A perfect evening to experience with your loved ones,' remarked the meteorologist.

"You should have let me leave when I wanted to. I told you I was there to interrogate you, and that I was wrong to interrupt your evening, but you let me. I'm not – well – I don't really know how to be a friend."

"Obviously," I said.

"I didn't have many growing up. Detective stories kept me plenty busy during recess."

"Mm-hm."

"Senpai," she whined, taking a couple steps toward me and halting as I brushed passed her and moved to sit at the table, facing away from her and toward the TV.

"I can remember, Senpai," broke out Naoto in urgency. She opened her mouth and let it hang there for a long moment before finally forcing vocals into the air. "I can remember specific moments in my life from a very young age. For instance, I was making Valentine's chocolates for my parents as a school craft assignment one day. My grandpa showed up at my classroom door, pulled me out of class, and told me that my parents were leaving. Going far away for a big case. They weren't likely to return for a long time, he said. But I could tell he was lying. He was blinking a lot and his voice was breaking and even then I was a small enthusiast for picking up on these details. I sneaked into his car when he wasn't looking, so my grandpa unknowingly took me to the scene of the crime. I saw my parents getting wheeled into an ambulance on stretchers. They died instantly in a brutal car accident February 12th, 2001 at approximately 11:25am."

Warily, I did not look at her. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I remember, Senpai. Snapshots of our memory stay burned in us forever."

"Yeah? So?" Her story kept me cautious. Sentimental stories were things people of all kinds quickly divulged to me in order to win sympathy.

"Just last night you expressed that you can't pinpoint where you were and when at any point in your life. You said you sometimes have moments when the shadow world and Inaba feel more real than anything else up until that point. Well, there's a reason you think that. And we proved it."

"I didn't mean it when I told you about it. It was just how I felt."

"But it's real, Senpai. Explain your powers. Explain how you were able to awaken everybody else to theirs."

Unable to resist, I finally turned to face her. She had drifted quite close and was now on her knees, eyes burning into mine. "Teddie calls you Sensei. Why is that?" demanded Naoto.

"He did... after he saw my powers," I answered.

"That's right. Because you are a link to that world. You can help us understand how it works and close it forever, thus eliminating the murders."

"I couldn't," I said.

"Not alone. You have friends."

"'Friends' other than you?"

The turned away is if the force of my words slapped her. "You have Yukiko," she muttered.

"But what about you?" my voice cracked. "I need you."

"You have me," she snapped.

The peace of the moment was short, cut off by the sharp clatter at the doorsteps and the metallic urgency of the rumbling doorknob as the front entrance gave way to a beach-blonde beast, swinging forward with a jacket cape. "Senpai! The craziest thing just happened. I-"

His jaw unhinged and dropped open in a freeze-frame moment as he beheld the scene: Naoto, without her hat, bed head, and wrinkled clothes, sitting with me so close on the floor that she was centimeters from my lap.

"Wha- What the hell is going on here?!" he bellowed.

"That's not melodramatic," I deadpanned.

"What is alarming you, Kanji?" said Naoto.

Kanji took a moment to hyperventilate. We waited, not feeling safe to move from our compromising positions. His focus flashed to her for an instant, but her presence repelled him to fix his furious posture and clenched fists aligned toward me.

"Nothing is 'alarming' me," steamed Kanji. "I just – I just want to know why my eyes have been playing tricks on me two times in one freaking day."

"Please Kanji," said Naoto. "Explain carefully. What did you want to tell Senpai?"

Kanji heaved deep breaths, collecting his thoughts and cooling his fury. "It's just- You know that Marie-chan chick? I saw her this morning in the shopping district. "And... And..."

"What is it, Kanji?" soothed Naoto.

"She disappeared, Senpai. She disappeared into thin air!"

Author's Note(8/25/2013): Hello followers and new visitors alike! I've been getting requests for awhile to include Kanji in the FanFic, and finally I have managed it. Kanji is a scary character for me to portray because in real life I talk much like Naoto, so my fear is writing Kanji-slang that sounds horribly forced or painfully two-dimensional. While I acknowledge there's a wealth of little nuances in Kanji, am I good enough to portray them?

Anyway, I have been deciding to go with the Ernest Hemingway technique of writing: always leave off in a place you know exactly what happens next. So you readers can trust I know what's going to happen beyond this chapter by at least a couple minutes.

As always, read, review, enjoy! And PM me, too. I'm always up to hear requests, rants, or simply exchange banter about P4 in general.