Lin dropped Naru and me off at the park around 10am the next morning. He had insisted that he would not be joining us and as Naru didn't argue, I presumed this was pre-arranged between them.
"So what is this?" I asked.
"Hara-san has asked us here for a case." He replied from beside me as we walked towards the meeting point.
"What mystery are we solving?"
"I have no idea."
"That has to be a first." I commented dryly.
"How am I supposed to know something she has yet to tell me?" He said with venom in his voice. He was obviously uneasy about this case.
"Well I didn't tell you my bra size and you knew that." I huffed.
"The contents of her apartment would not answer your question."
"Do you make a habit of searching young girl's apartments?"
"Just the ones I-" But Naru was cut off short by our client.
"I didn't realise you were bringing her." Hara-san said from behind her sleeve. I could not ignore the insult in her voice and glared furiously back. She was wearing another beautiful kimono under her coat and again looked annoying perfect.
"You said there was a case here, she is one of my assistants, so I brought her with me." He explained patiently.
"She won't be needed." Hara-san giggled. How could someone so small be so annoying? She was looking up expectantly at Naru as if he was going to just dismiss me on the spot.
"Go home Mai, I expect you on time tomorrow." Naru said, without even looking at me.
"Fine." I huffed and turned on my heel and stormed away from the giggling girl and my narcissistic arse of a boss. That man made no sense. Yesterday he had been so gentle and sweet and now he was acting like I was dirt under his shoes.
I knew, deep down, that this was probably part of some sort of act, but it didn't make it hurt any less. And if it was all an act, how did I know which bit was fake? Had that kiss meant anything to him?
I was so pre-occupied with my thoughts that I managed to walk straight into someone walking the other way.
"I'm sorry!" I said quickly, crouching to pick up the bag the woman had dropped. However, when I stood back up, I realised that not only was this woman heavily pregnant but she also looked oddly familiar. "Mori-san?"
The woman grinned down at me.
"Come on, you can help me with these bags." She said, hooking an arm through my free one.
"You dyed your hair?" I asked as we walked.
"Yes, and became eight months pregnant in the last week or so…" She replied, obviously amused by my reaction. "It's a fake bump, don't worry." She added in a whisper.
I was still frowning as we walked through the rest of the park, presumably towards her flat.
"You were there on purpose?" I enquired as we started up some stairs in a block of dingy looking flats.
"Of course, I wanted to talk to you."
"Why didn't you just pop by the office?"
"What do you call that boy? Naru? Well Naru wouldn't like it." She said, still looking amused. "Besides, I have to lay low right now."
Mori-san opened the door and let me into her apartment.
"Take a seat, I'll make tea." And she bustled about in the kitchen for a few minutes before appearing with two cups of steaming hot tea. "We need to talk."
I took a cup of tea from her and nodded. She sat down opposite me, huffing like the heavily pregnant woman she appeared to be.
"I know that you know what Naru did on Tuesday." She said it with no hint of a question in her voice. "I know you know some of what he really does and I know you have feelings for him."
I began to protest at her final statement, but she cut me off.
"I can see it in your eyes Taniyama-san." She said sternly and I fell silent for a moment before regaining my composure.
"If I know so much, why haven't you killed me?"
"Because he asked me not to." She replied simply, but continued at the look of confusion on my face. "It's quite common in our line of work. Occasionally, you come across someone and you can't do it. You choose to let them live; perhaps because they smiled, or because they reminded you of something innocent. I think it eases the guilt." She took a sip of her tea. "He won't sack you as he wants to keep an eye on you. And telling you not to get closer to him will not deter you."
"I…" I began, but she cut me off again.
"So I want you to watch something."
"So you know who I am and what I am doing in Japan." Naru surmised succinctly. "What exactly is it you want from me? Apart from to clear out your garbage." He finished his statement with clear distaste in his voice.
"Oh, I'm sure I'll find a use for you." Hara-san said alluringly. She was clinging to his arm and batting her eyelids, as if it would have some sort of effect over him.
"How did you find out?" Naru asked, staring around at their surroundings. The park, despite being the middle of winter, was still full of people. Some were just passing through on their way home, some were exercising and the remainder were small children playing under the bare trees.
"I've seen the video of course."
"Who showed it to you?"
"Matsuzuki and Takigawa." Hara-san replied. "They are the detectives who are investigating you; I presume you are aware of them?"
"Of course. Do they know how dangerous you really are?"
"Oh, you really know how to flatter a girl, don't you?" She giggled again. "But no, of course they don't."
Naru stopped and turned to face Hara-san.
"I don't want to play games with you. What is it you want with me?"
"Well Mr Davis, how about we go back to my place and I'll show you exactly what sort of games we can play." She winked provocatively and led him away.
I had been concerned when Madoka had returned with a washing up bowl and a laptop.
However, after watching the clip that was only a few minutes long, I knew exactly why she had brought the bowl. The tea I had drunk was fighting to escape my queasy stomach.
"He did that?" I asked through laboured breaths.
"Yes." Madoka replied, there was pity in her eyes and I wondered if she genuinely regretted having had to show the clip to me. She closed the laptop down and put it to one side. "He is a dangerous man, I am sure you knew that though."
"I didn't realise…"
"That he was capable of such brutality?" She asked and I nodded my head. "He is an accomplished actor."
It was only later, when I lay in my own bed trying to sleep, that those words really sunk in. 'An accomplished actor', she had said.
I had known why she had shown me those things.
Yesterday I had questioned why I had let someone I knew was a murderer touch me, comfort me, kiss me… Today, I felt sick at the very thought. Flashes of that video played through my head. The blood had danced, the kills had been clean, and his movements had been swift. It had been like some perverted form of performance.
My hands were gripped on the knife that I had kept in my room and I wondered what the point of holding onto it was anymore. Any of them could kill me in an instant and I had no way to fight that. I was safe as long as he wanted me living.
But as I closed my eyes I thought about last night's kiss. Was I a fool to hope that it hadn't been an act? Or glad that someone so vile had to act in order to show such intimacy?
Slowly, I fell into an uneasy sleep.
Naru had been standing in the shower for nearly half an hour. It had long since gone cold, but that no longer bothered him.
He did not feel clean.
No matter how much he scrubbed every part of his body, he still felt violated at what that woman had made him do. He knew that he could have stopped at any point, but at what price? His head? Mai's head?
Nothing was worth risking that. So he had let her use him. Her associates were too dangerous and too large to ignore.
Naru wondered if he would ever feel clean again. Despite having done it several times already, he picked up the shower gel bottle and squeezed more gel out of it into his palm. He vigorously rubbed it all over his body, trying to scoop any trace of that woman out of his pores.
He knew that certain superiors of his would be furious if they ever found out, as if that would ever reach a report.
The worst part was he knew he would have to do it again. He balled up his fist and slammed it into the wall. Pain flared up through his arm and red spots of blood appeared on his knuckles. He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted out.
But there was no out.
When you play this game, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.
Author's note: If you missed the reference in this one, shame on you all.
I was asked in my reviews of chapter 13 to explain a few things so here goes:
The thing about the chocolate - Right so the Narumi Kazuo and Shibuya Kazuya are both characters created by Naru in order to protect his real identity that for the sake of argument we will all pretend that we don't know what it is :P So each of these characters he has created will have different opinions on things, such as chocolate, as described in the chapter. Chocolate was chosen as it reminds him of Mai, or more particularly, Mai's eyes. So the "Perhaps Naru liked chocolate after all." Line at the end was an admission that he had some sort of feelings for Mai. I am sure there is a technical name for this sort of writing device, but I am a Physics student, so I have no idea what it is.
The thing about the drugs - Regarding this line: "He had already lost one person to this world of blood and drugs and sex and lies." Naru is, as I am sure you have all figured out by now, part of the underworld of crime and stuff, which is known for drug smuggling, people smuggling, killing people and sharing secrets for a price. So that was merely a reference to the world he works in. He does not do drugs.
If you have any more questions please do not hesitate to contact me!
And finally, please review with your thoughts and guesses!