Mai woke up refreshed and in an unfamiliar room. Her dream was still vivid in her mind and for some reason she knew that it wasn't just a dream. There was something more to it. Mai knew her imagination was good but it couldn't be that good. So before Mai could forget the details she had to write them down.
From downstairs Naru could here lots of rustling and thumping and began to get worried. Maybe Mai had woken up in a panic or has injured herself... Or maybe the creatures had returned. Quickly he sprang to his feet and went up the stairs two at a time, never stopping until he reached Mai's room. Naru didn't bother knocking- it was his apartment- and he was too worried to care about being polite. With his heart pounding in his chest, he pushed open the door to reveal Mai raiding the draws.
"What are you doing?" His voice was stern but inside Naru couldn't hide the amusement he felt. There was just something funny about Mai ruffling through his things with such determination. He could tell the she also saw that amusement because ever since they met she has been able to see right through him.
Mai had the strangest ability to see the true nature of something. It was instinct to her. Naru knew, from the moment he met her scrutinizing gaze in her high school classroom, that she could see right through the roles he had played during the investigation.
Mai stiffed and looked up wanting nothing more than to make a snappy, smart-mouthed comment, however first she needed a pen and piece of paper. "I'm looking for something to write with, if you must know."
Curiosity blazed in Naru's eyes as he reached into his pocket for a note pad and pen- he had always made it a habit to carry one just in case.
Mai grabbed for them and frantically began to write down everything the women had said in the dream. "What is that?" Naru asked as he sat down beside her on the hard wooden floor. She felt his body heat radiate to her and it took all her will power not to lean into him, close her eyes and wish that she was normal.
"I heard it in my dream. It seemed important..." I couldn't really explain why these riddles were important but they were, i knew it. It was something to do with the silent ones. It was like they wanted to help me, like they were hinting at a way to defeat them.
"The first answer has to be your name." Naru said as he read the riddle 'What belongs to you but people use it more than you do?'.
Mai nodded and said, "The next one is silence, but i don't really understand the last one. What about you?" Naru shook his head, reading and re-reading the riddle but not making any sense of it at all.
Mai sighed and tucked it into her pocket, "I'll come back to it later." After all it is proven that you always understand something better when you take a break and come back to it.
With that, Mai went downstairs with Naru at her side and as the day continued Mai found herself relaxing more and more. Naru obviously had money but he didn't splash it around. The apartment was a simple two bedroom apartment with one bathroom, kitchen and living room. Lin lived next door. This made it obvious that the men like their own space.
"Naru...?" I asked interrupting the silence. He looked up showing that he had heard her, "if i am going to stay hear. I'm going to need my stuff."
Naru nodded at the hidden question and then motioned to the door. "I had Miss Matsuzaki go to your house and pack a couple of suit cases while you were asleep." He said. While on the car ride here, he had decided that he wasn't going to let Mai out of his sight. Even when she was sleeping he had sat in her room for hours, until he realized that Mai would scream at him to leave if she found him in the room.
The silence then continue. Naru, Mai learned, was not much of a talker. However, fortunately for her, she was. "So, how was England?"
"It was good."
"Really, maybe one day i will go. I've gotten better at my English and a couple of other languages. What did you do in England?" Naru could tell that Mai was trying to fill the silence and found it amusing. He also found it enlightening that Mai had achieved a lot in his absence. She had always struggled with English and now she knows more that 3 other languages.
"Work."
Mai frowned and then sighed. This wasn't getting anywhere. Naru is just as stubborn and boring as when she first met him, and for some unfathomable reason she loved this stubborn, boring man.
Mai just gave up and took out the piece of paper that had the 3 riddles written on it. "When you are born you are already your conceived you already exist. Find what belongs and the Silent will be gone. The Unknown will be Know. For that is what the soundless want, to be noise." I muttered out loud. This could mean anything. What were these woman hinting about? Why wouldn't they give me any instructions for my to build...
That's it! They had given my instructions. The answers to the last to riddles were name and silence. So this riddle means that When you are born you already have a name and when you are conceived that is when parents start thinking of names for there children. Maybe...Maybe i'm suppose to find the identities of the Silent ones? They want to kill me because they want to exist, they want to be noticed, maybe they are...
"Impossible." I whispered out loud in astonishment. Naru upon hearing her looked up from his book. She stared flabbergasted at the piece of paper and his inquisitiveness got the better of him.
"What?"
"I, I think i know what the riddle means." Mai looked up and amazement and excitement shone through her eyes.
Naru raised his eyebrows and asked the question once again, but silently, what?
"I think that i silent ones are those how didn't get the chance to live. Those who were never named because for some reason or another they were not born into this world." Mai looked at Naru and saw the perplexed expression on his face, "Ghost's want me because they want to live again but what if these spirits want to live for once. That is what the riddle suggests. 'For that is what the soundless want, to be noise.' I think we have to find the names of the creatures. I think we have to give them a face."
Naru stared at Mai. What she was saying made sense but it was near impossible? There are probably thousands of people who had had abortions or miscarriages or had a child die during birth. How were we going to find a name for all of them.
