So I made the narcissistic jerk his tea and returned to my bedroom without saying a word. However, much to my annoyance, he followed me.
"What do you want?" I asked as I climbed back under my duvet.
He did not reply. What a git.
Instead, he sat down on the other side of my bed with his tea and waited expectantly.
"I thought you didn't want to watch films with me." I said, annoyed.
"That was until I remembered how awful your taste in books was."
"My taste in books is just fine!" I protested. But once again, he did not reply. "Is it because you can't read kanji?" I asked but he still didn't answer. He only drank some of his tea.
Scowling I began the film and sat back to watch it. About five minutes in though, Naru interrupted.
"Something is about to make you jump." He said calmly between sips of tea.
And sure enough, ten seconds later, something happened that would have made me jump. That is, it would have if he hadn't pointed it out to me.
"Are you going to do this the whole film?" I scowled.
"It's a more interesting past time than the film."
"Jerk."
But he shut up after that – thankfully.
And so we watched the film in silence until my head began to drop. I didn't even remember falling asleep.
The young man was slightly amused at the sight of his assistant asleep on his shoulder. He finished the tea and placed the cup on the bedside table. Then he shut down the laptop and manoeuvred it to the floor.
Gently, placing his arms around the young woman, he shifted her position so she was lying in a more natural position and tucked the duvet over body.
She mumbled something in her sleep that the young man did not catch but as she shifted her hand came to rest on his and he left it there perhaps a moment longer than he should have.
Then he left the room with the teacup. In the kitchen, he washed the cup and wiped it carefully, then collected all the bloody tissues and placed them in a bag.
He took one look around the apartment and spotted the knife the young girl had threatened him with earlier. Sighing, he picked it up with his handkerchief and returned it to her room, placing it on her bedside table.
And then he left.
"Saito-san, what do we have here?" The redhead asked as she strode onto the site.
"Where's Takigawa-san?" Saito-san, a small weak looking man, asked in return.
"Just parking the car." The redhead gestured to the building in front of them.
"Well I would call it a mass-murder. But I think extermination might be a better word." Saito-san replied.
"Who are the victims?"
"Believed to be an entire clan of one of the yazuka families, though admittedly a smaller clan." Saito-san replied nervously. "Matsuzuki-san, whoever did this was a very skilled killer, please be careful."
"You didn't wait for me?" Takigawa-san shouted as he neared the pair talking. "You mean old bat."
"Shut it." Matsuzuki-san replied. "Saito-san, please show us around the scene. Do we know which clan?"
"Not entirely sure, but I have set the new intern to looking through the paperwork to try and find out." Saito-san admitted. "So he didn't have to focus on the bodies."
"New intern?" Takigawa-san asked.
"Yasuhara-san, he's very good, despite being so young." Saito-san said as he opened the door to a large warehouse like room. Matsuzaki-san and Takigawa-san both gasped.
The room was covered in blood. At least thirty bodies lay in various places all over the room, all of which had been sliced almost to pieces. A team of forensics were working in various places and bagging evidence.
"The katana is over there." Saito-san pointed to a blade propped up as if on display.
"The killer left the weapon?"
"As you see it now. CSI reckons that the weapon belongs to the clan. Theory is that this was some sort of challenge and the killer won. We have some blood splatter experts working on who's blood was whose and where they standing when they were cut. But it's going to be a tough job. The man we believe was the leader was beheaded."
"Beheaded with their own sword."
A sudden shout interrupted them.
"Saito-san, there is no trace of who these people are on paper. It's all under a false business name: The Koi Company."
"Ah, Yasuhara-san, please meet Takigawa-san and Matsuzuki-san." Saito-san said. Yasuhara-san bowed deeply. Takigawa-san and Matsuzuki-san returned the bow, though not as deep.
The young man was tall with dark hair and a kind face framed with glasses. Though what drew Takigawa-san's notice was the small portion of finger he was missing on the little finger of his left hand.
"We'll let you get back to work. Let us know if you find anything of importance." Matsuzaki-san said and the pair of detectives left.
When I woke the next morning, I was alone. It took me a moment to remember that Naru had turned up out of the blue. I searched my apartment, but he was nowhere to be seen. I imagine he left when he thought 'the coast was clear'.
I would have to admit to spending a lot of my day at school worrying that he was okay. I had taken a first aid course when I had decided to live alone. So while I sort of knew what I was doing in patching him up, I still wasn't certain that he'd be okay. I mean what if the cut was infected?
I fumbled my way through my lessons and at the end of the school day, began the walk to SPR. I detoured to a cheap convenience store to buy something to eat.
My detour took me by Yuasa High School. The school was slightly bigger than mine, and should've been nearly empty at this time, yet I spotted someone in a fenced off area.
My curiosity got the better of me and I crossed the road to get a better look at what they were doing. A girl with long black hair was tugging at something on the ground, but I couldn't see what it was.
Then she spotted me.
"Oi! What are you looking at?!" She shouted aggressively.
"I'm sorry, just you seemed to be struggling, do you want some help?"
She seemed to falter at my words, and then nodded.
I vaulted the fence and ran over.
"What's the problem?" I asked.
"I need to get this drain cover off."
"Why?"
"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to."
What was it with people and telling me that?
I bent down and together we tugged at the drain cover and slowly it inched onto the grass.
"There." I said as I stood up after the cover was well away from the hole and peered down into the darkness. "You can't go down there, the ladder's broken." I pointed out.
"You can go now." She said calmly.
"What are you going to do?" I asked, concerned.
"Go down there."
"But the ladder is broken! You might die."
"That's the aim." She replied quietly, as if she didn't quite mean to say it out loud.
"What's your name?"
"Kasai Chiaki."
"I'm Taniyama Mai, but you can call me Mai, okay?" I said calmly. "Why do you want to die?"
She looked up sharply at my words.
"Who told you that?"
"You just did." I pointed out apologetically. She looked away, ashamed.
"They keep bullying me." She whispered.
"Who?"
"All the other students." She admitted. "I can't help the way I am…"
"Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, Kasai-san." I said carefully. "What year are you in?"
"I'm a third year."
"So you'll be out of this place in a few months, right? You can be away from those jerks and never have to see them again." I said. "Do you have anyone you can talk to?"
"Ubusuna-sensei is kind to me."
"Well perhaps you should talk to her about the bullying? She might be able to stop them?" I suggested. Then moved between her and the drain. "But I won't let you try to commit suicide."
I held my arms out shielding her from the drain.
"Okay…" Kasai-san seemed to deflate a bit. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because I don't believe whatever you've done to make people bully you is your fault and it's just not right." I replied. "Come on, let's put this cover back and then I'll give you my number if you like. And if you ever want to rant to me, you can, okay?"
Kasai-san nodded.
As I made to step towards the drain cover again, I managed – and don't ask me how – to trip backwards.
Backwards towards the drain.
Squealing I floundered my arms around as I began to fall through the hole and caught on to the edge. I could feel my heartbeat pounding in my ears.
"Taniyama-san!" Kasai-san screamed and rushed over. She tried to pull me from the drain, but she was as weak as I am. "I'll go and get help!" She said urgently and I saw her run off. "Hold on!" She added over her shoulder.
I tried to slow my breathing and improve my grip on the rim of the drain. Gingerly, I found footing on the rusted old ladder and tried to push off it slightly, but it crumbled beneath my foot.
Then a shout caught my attention.
"Mai? What are you doing?" It was Naru. What on earth was he of all people doing here?!
"I was helping Kasai-san!"
"Kasai-san?"
"Yeah, she was just here…" Then my grip slipped slightly and I squealed as I felt my body drop a few inches.
"Mai!" Naru's voice sounded closer now, but I couldn't be sure.
"I'm okay!"
Oh gravity, thou art a heartless bitch.
I could feel my body slipping further and further down as my sweaty hands lost their grip. Incoherent noises spewed from my mouth as I desperately clung to safety.
Then, at the moment I was sure I was going to fall, two large hands grabbed my arm and prevented my further decent into the darkness. Shocked, I looked up.
"Listen. Calm down, and find your footing on the ladder again." Naru's face had appeared in the opening. "Can you do that?"
"But it's broken?"
"It should hold well enough for me to get a better hold of you, okay?"
"Yes."
I looked for another rung and tentatively placed my foot on it. But as I put weight on it, it too began to crumble.
"I'm going to fall!"
And we did. Both of us fell into the darkness, joined by Naru's grip on my arm.
"Did you see the intern's finger?" Takigawa-san asked his partner as they sat idly in their joint office.
"No, what about it?"
"He was missing his little finger up to the first joint on his left hand."
"So?"
"So that's a punishment for a first offence in the Yakuza."
"You don't think…?"
"I don't know." Takigawa-san looked out of the office window. But before they could continue the conversation, the office phone rang and Matsuzuki-san picked it up.
"We'll be right down." She said after listening for a moment and hung up. "They want us in evidence."
The two partners walked down to the evidence room.
"Ah, Matsuzuki-san, we have something of great interest to you." Saito-san said. "We have CCTV of the kills."
"What?"
But Saito-san's answer was a gesture of to the screen behind him where Yasuhara-san was pulling up the relevant footage.
"It doesn't have any sound, but you can clearly see everything in colour." Yasuhara-san said as he sat back so they could see the screen.
The video began.
A man dressed all in black with a balaclava over his head was standing in the middle of the room.
He seemed to be speaking to one of men, presumably the leader. Another man passed the masked man a katana and then passed another to one of the subordinates.
The masked man's skill outranked the subordinate by far. He had sliced him from stomach to throat in a matter of a second or two. Several of the other subordinates pounced drawing weapons of their own, but the masked man moved with a skill unrivalled by that of the thugs.
It took him a minute to finish off all bar the leader, who lay down his weapon and knelt in recognition of his loss. The killer finished him with one swipe that took the leader's head clean off. Yasuhara-san paused the video.
"He's a monster." Takigawa-san muttered. "Did he even get injured?"
"If he did, it did not slow him down. I could go through this at half speed to see if he was injured."
"Can we get anything about his appearance from this?"
"Well apart from the obvious pale skill, I think he has blue eyes. If you can give me an hour or so, I should be able to work out his height and rough dimensions from the footage. If you asked me now, I would say he was somewhere between 175cm and 180cm."
"Get us the most accurate data you can." Matsuzaki-san said. She and Takigawa-san shared a look; neither of them had quite realised what they were dealing with.
Together they walked up to their shared office.
"I think it's the same guy. That description the intern gave, though rough, matches him perfectly."
"I think you're right."
"So what on earth is he up to?" Matsuzuki-san asked. "He just took out an entire clan of a criminal organisation that had the backing of one of the families of the yakuza. He had endangered his own life by doing that. We should be thanking him."
"We should keep this quiet." Takigawa-san said and his partner nodded her agreement.
"We should."
I don't remember blacking out upon landing. But when I woke, I was very aware that my wrist hurt like crazy.
"Are you alright?" A voice asked from behind me. I spun round to see Naru sat against the wall of the sewer massaging his own arm.
"You fell in too?" I asked stupidly.
"If you had let go of my hand, I wouldn't have fallen in with you." He pointed out.
"I'm sorry." I said quietly, though hadn't he been holding onto me? I couldn't remember, it was kind of fuzzy. "I didn't think the step would… Hey, someone will come to save us soon, right?"
"Did you let anyone know you were coming here?"
"Well not really, apart from Kasai-san, but she said she was going for help…" I trailed off.
"I did not see anyone else around." He said.
"Hey! Anyone up there?!" I yelled. But no one responded.
"Why did you come here?"
"I was helping Kasai-san." I looked back up at the hole, remembering Kasai-san solemn demeanour before rounding on Naru again. "How can you stay so calm in a place like this? Especially knowing that it's going to be night soon?"
It's not that I was particularly afraid of the dark, but the thought of being stuck down a sewer at night wasn't particularly appealing! Plus I was stuck in a sewer with the most aloof person! I mean, sure, it's my fault that we fell, but since we're stuck here, he could at least be comforting or encouraging or something!
Hey wait a minute… Thinking about it, isn't this a quality time to find out more about him?
"Have you regained composure?" He interrupted my thoughts.
"Yep." I replied. "You knew I'd regain composure?"
"I knew." He said, and then much to my surprise, elaborated. "You would first be depressed, then get angry, finally calm down, and then become optimistic."
"You really know me very well." I commented.
"It's written all over your face."
I clutched my cheeks in embarrassment.
"Is that so? Oh dear."
"Mai, shall I introduce you to a pet of mine?" Naru said and his voice sounded different. It was lighter.
"Huh?"
He fished something out of his pocket.
"Here, come and look."
I watched and a 500 yen coin popped out of the top of his hand.
"You're not going to tell me your pet's a 500 yen coin, are you?" I teased.
The coin wiggled a little, and then dropped down out of sight.
"It's hiding because you made fun of it."
"You're bluffing!" I protested, pointing at his hand. "It's still in your hand."
"Where?" And he held both hands up and opened them to show me his palms. They were empty.
"What?!" I frowned.
"It's here." And he touched his elbow and drew out the coin between two of his long fingers.
"How did that happen?" I asked, confused. "Let me look!" I demanded loudly, holding my hand out to take the coin. It had to be some sort of trick, right?
"Catch!" And he flicked the coin at me. But I did not see where it landed and so glanced around to see where it had fallen.
"You didn't even throw it at me!" I accused.
"It's hiding again, because it was frightened by your loud voice." He said, showing me his open palms again.
"I wasn't talking loudly." I retorted childishly.
"Ah, it's here." He said. He felt under the collar of his coat and drew out the coin again.
"You're a good performer." I said softly.
"So you think this is a performance?" He asked, sounding amused.
"Isn't it?"
"It's not." Another higher and more childish voice said as the coin wiggled in his fingers.
"It talked!" I said, retreating slightly out of shock.
"Don't tell me you're still afraid of Mai?" Naru said to the coin.
"Yeah." The coin replied in the same voice.
"Don't be afraid. Mai isn't as scary as she might seem."
"Really?" The coin said. It was amazing, this had to be ventriloquism. Even though I knew that, it still felt like the coin was really speaking.
"Can you do anything else?"
"I can't do anything more complicated than this at the moment." Naru replied, pocketing the coin. The dead look had returned to his eyes.
"Did you get hurt?" I asked, worried.
"I don't have enough equipment." He said, and was there bitterness in his voice? Or was I imagining it?
"Don't worry. Lin will arrive soon, hopefully with a rope."
"What?"
"He was in the van with me when I noticed you falling into the well." Naru replied calmly. "He spoke to me while you were passed out. He went to find rope."
"And you didn't think to tell me that?" I huffed. But before I could show him any more of my displeasure, a shout from above drew my attention.
"Naru? Are you down there?" It was Lin.
"Yes."
"I'll throw it down and anchor this end. Can you climb up?" Lin called down. "What about Mai?"
"I'll carry her." Naru said; standing and looking over at me. "Get on my back." He ordered as the rope fell down from the opening.
I didn't dare argue and so climbed onto his back, securing my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his waist.
Whatever I expected him to do, it wasn't for him to take hold of the rope and begin pulling the pair of us up without using his legs at all. I mean it wasn't that I thought he was weak, but he didn't look overly muscled. Perhaps he has done some climbing before, I pondered. Climbers often looked weedy but were immensely strong.
I tried my hardest not to look down because the thought of falling from this height again was terrifying. Instead, I focused on my other senses. Naru smelt very nice. Like warmth and tea and something homely. It wasn't what I had expected to be perfectly honest. I had thought he would smell like disinfectant or something clinical. Well maybe not disinfectant… I giggled at the thought.
"Stop fidgeting or I'll make you climb up by yourself." He muttered.
"Sorry." I whispered back. But daylight was getting closer and suddenly we were almost out.
"Lin, help Mai off me." Naru said, clinging to the edge. Lin released the rope and grabbed me and practically dragged me out before offering a hand to Naru, which he took.
"Thank you." I said. "But what were you even doing here in the first place?"
"Investigating something at the school." Naru replied. "Confidential, so don't ask."
"Wasn't going to and do you mean an actual case?" I asked incredulously while Lin replaced the cover.
"Yes Mai, believe it or not, we do not idly claim to solve cases without taking any." He sounded exasperated, or perhaps exhausted. I wasn't sure which. "Let's get to the office. Come on."
We made our way to the van and Naru allowed me to climb in before him.
As we drove off, I wondered briefly what happened to Kasai-san.
Author's note: Well was that long enough for you all?
We'll I'm starting to reveal more stuff now! So I hope soon more of your questions will be answered! It's infuriating not being able to tell you what's going on because it's going to ruin it, but I hate turning down all your questions! I honestly try and answer them without spoiling anything!
Do you all realise the amount of times during the day I think of something and plan to put it in my author's notes and then COMPLETELY forget what it was that I wanted to include? Because it happens to me SO often. Ah well, I hope it wasn't too important!
Please review with your thoughts and predictions! I love hearing them and reviews really do make my day!