Fears and Desires, Part 9
Normal?
"Mai, go away." Mai crossed her arms. Naru inwardly sighed, that was a sure sign she wasn't going to listen to him. Why does she have to be so stubborn?
"Says you." Gene's voice rang through his head. He glanced at the lake, his reflection was grinning broadly, though thankfully Mai hadn't noticed. Yet.
"Do you think I should say hi?"
No. Naru growled in his head. Gene laughed.
"Mai, go away." He repeated.
"Naru! You were gone for half an hour! We thought something might have happened to you! You weren't even on any monitors! You DIED! Remember? No way am I going back!" She gave one exasperated puff and topped her speech off with her best glare yet.
"I didn't die. We've already been through this, surely even someone with your brain capacity should get it." He said. "Mai, go away. I'm busy."
"Busy doing what? Staring at your reflection?"
"Mai, I mean it."
Gene chuckled. "Maybe I should leave you two lovebirds together…" Naru scowled.
"Even for a narcissist that is just-" She didn't say what it was but picked up a handy rock nearby and flung it at the lake. Ripples spread out, destroying his reflection and his talk with Gene. Naru stood up.
"What did you do that for?" Mai realised that Naru's fists were clenched. Did I really make him that mad? But I didn't do anything bad… if he's so upset about losing his reflection then it's his own fault.
"Then don't be such a narcissist!" She yelled. The usual trio of plotters and well-wishers paused in their running. If Mai was yelling like that, Naru was fine, Mai was livid, and Naru was too… maybe it wasn't such a good idea to carry on. They looked at each other, and retreated to a safe distance from them.
"You don't understand-" The air around him was reaching 0 Kelvin it was so cold, and Mai was practically crying.
"Well maybe I would if you told me something rather then treating me like the biggest idiot to walk the planet!" She screamed at him. "Okay! I don't understand! I'm not as vain as you! I don't spend hours each day staring at myself!"
Naru turned away from her and started walking back to base.
"I was talking to you, you self-centred, egotistical MORON!" She screamed after him, raising her voice so he would hear.
Naru stalked into base, almost making the plants wither as he glared at them. Lin had been waiting for him, watching his rapid progress through the monitor screens. Lin looked at Naru, hoping he didn't blow it. Naru had enough power to kill not only himself but the rest of SPR and anyone else near enough as well.
"I actually talked to him, and then she comes along and…" His teeth clenched along with his fists. Lin also spoke in English.
"Talked to who?" Lin asked, fairly surprised.
"Gene!"
"Gene?" Maybe he had attached himself to Naru as a ghost, but his shiki would have picked up on it…
"In the lake." Lin nodded. So that's why he talks to himself in the mirror sometimes…
"Calm down, Noll." Naru glared at him.
"God, I could-"
"Exactly. Which is why you need to calm down." Naru put his hands on the table, leaning forward.
"Oliver!" Lin snapped.
"What?"
"Control yourself. Do you want to be killed?" Naru gave him a look that clearly said 'I really don't care if I do'. "What about me? Bou-san, Ayako and Yasuhara? They're probably in the building by now." Naru didn't respond. "What about her?"
"I'd be dead too, so it wouldn't be my problem." Lin sighed. This kind of attitude was bad. He knew it was just the pent up anger speaking, and not him, but still…
"It would be, if you killed her. Do you want her blood on your hands?" Naru closed his eyes slightly. He didn't, and he didn't want to injure the others either, even though they were annoying. He thought back to when he had burst into the kitchen and saw their faces. Something clicked. They were grieving for me. Lin could see his words were having some effect. He waited as Naru struggled to regain his composure.
The door opened and the usual suspects walked in. Monk and Yasuhara's mouths opened slightly and Ayako stared. Masako's mouth was covered by her kimono, but her's and John's eyes were round as saucers. Lin glanced at them.
"Where's Mai?" He switched smoothly back to Japanese.
"Err…" Monk remembered himself. "We thought she would be here…"
"So you left her on her own?" Naru had turned to look at them. Five gulps echoed round the room. Ten feet hastily moved towards the door. Once they had all left the door nearly rotted away.
"I told you to be calm." Said Lin, still in Japanese.
"I am calm." Naru struggled to stop blowing up base.
"No, you're not."
"They just left her? What do I have, a ghost hunting team, or a bunch of idiots?" Naru spoke again in English.
"They're looking for her. She'll be fine."
"She's such a trouble magnet! Ghosts just flock to her!"
"Nothings happened on the monitors. She probably just wants time to fume."
Naru dropped his head onto the table with a loud bang.
"Noll…"
"I'm fine. I'm calm. After all, I can speak to him later, can't I?" Naru's voice was drowning in sarcasm.
"Noll, be calm. You have a mirror, right?"
"She'd just smash it, saying some crap about how I'm a narcissist and I'm so vain."
"Not if she's not here." Said Lin, still in Japanese. Naru would speak Japanese when he was calmer, so Naru speaking in English was not good.
"You said she's fine, and that they're looking for her. They would bring her back to base, and she'd smash it and I thought you didn't want me to kill myself." Naru was starting to sound like a typical English teenager. "He rarely talks on cases." He added in a quieter voice.
"Then don't take so many."
"…"
"Think about everyone else. They wouldn't want you to die. Gene wouldn't. Mai wouldn't."
"She hates me."
Lin sighed again. Truly, Naru was a genius at everything except people. I should be getting medals for this job. He had wished a thousand times that Naru would be more normal, but now he was regretting it.
"No, she doesn't."
"Everyone seems to hate me." Naru mused quietly. Lin strained to hear his words.
"Oliver! Don't say that!" Lin shouted in English. Naru looked slightly startled at the use of his name.
"It's true, isn't it?"
"It's not true! God, of all the times, now is when you start acting like a normal teenager…"
"I don't have any social skills." Lin wasn't sure what was worse, livid Naru or depressed Naru.
"But not to the extreme that everyone hates you! Noll, you're a part of SPR. You can't change that."
"I'm the boss of it. That's not the same. I heard that people hate their bosses."
"Do you want me to call your parents?" This should have some effect.
Naru stood up and made for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"If I go back to England I'll save you a telephone call, but I'm not nice enough to do that."
"You can't leave! What about the case? What about Gene?"
Naru stopped walking.
"Two years. Two years I've been in this country, and still no sign. Two years I've been searching."
"That doesn't mean you can stop now!"
Naru was closer to the door.
"Oliver, you're not leaving!"
"I'm going outside."
"Where?"
"I'll just wander around a bit. Probably end up at the lake."
"Noll…"
"I won't jump in. Don't worry."
"I'll watch you through the monitors, so don't think you can do anything reckless."
Naru nodded and left, making sure to watch for the others. He didn't want to bump into them. He walked towards the lake. No sign of anyone else. He avoided looking at his reflection; he didn't want a rant from Gene either. He walked round the lake, calming himself and trying to restore his composure. He avoided looking at the inky waters, and once he'd walked round once he started walking down a small road. The sun was hanging low in the sky, giving everything a golden touch. He walked down a small alley onto a bigger road. Still no sign of the rest of SPR. Naru glared at a camera, wondering if they were all back at base. He felt calmer, but he didn't know if Mai did. Probably not. And the others probably didn't want to see him. They tended to take Mai's side.
He stepped out into the road, lost in his thoughts. He froze as he heard the car, too late. He looked up, into its headlights. He could faintly make out a woman behind the wheel, panicking. The scene was all too familiar. He watched as the car approached, too close to not hit him, paralyzed.
This happened before… I've already experienced this…
Wouldn't it be ironic if I died like Gene?
He felt the bonnet of the car slamming into him, and was knocked off his feet.
Will she run me over again? Will she wrap my body up and throw me in a lake?
"Naru!" Mai? He could hear that the driver had turned her engine off. "Naru!" What is Mai doing here?
"Naru! Are you okay? Can you respond?" Another voice, it sounds like Ayako. He could feel himself slipping into unconsciousness.
"Shibuya-san?" Ah, the driver.
"There's no blood. He's not dead, Mai. Calm down." Another voice, male.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened, my car went out of control, I couldn't brake, and it was steering for him…"
"He's alive, and I don't think any bones are broken." He heard someone sigh with relief. Probably Mai. He fell into unconsciousness.
Naru groaned. He ached all over, like he was one big bruise. No, maybe several big bruises that overlapped so he felt even worse.
"Naru?"
He prised open one eyelid, then the other. He was in a bed, and Mai was staring worriedly at him.
"Naru?" She asked again. He looked around without moving his head too much. He was in the boy's room back at the inn. Mai was the only other person in the room.
"Naru? Can you hear me?"
"Of course I can hear you, baka."
"Naru you're okay! When I saw you get hit by that car I thought you might be dead…"
"You say that every time I get hurt."
She scowled. "You do tend to hurt yourself in dramatic ways. Ayako said that you were just unconscious, so we didn't call an ambulance; we just put you in bed. The woman who was driving the car said that her car went out of control and hit you."
He remembered what happened before he got knocked out. This ghost really doesn't like me… Why does everyone's wants or fears have something to do with me?
"Naru? How do you feel?"
"I got hit by a car. How do you think I feel?"
"No need to be so grumpy!"
He turned so his back was to her.
"Naru?"
"What?"
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry that I got mad at you and yelled…"
"Forget it."
"What?"
"I said forget it. Don't your ears work?"
"My ears work fine! How come whenever I apologise you throw it back in my face?"
"I overreacted. Now shut up."
Her eyebrow twitched.
"I'm going back to sleep."
"Naru! You can't go back to sleep! You just woke up!"
"I can do what I want."
"Stupid narcissist proud-"
"Moron?" He asked.
"-jerk!"
"That's a lighter form of moron. Now, shut up."
"Don't tell me what to do!"
"I'm your boss, you do as I say, or you lose pay. Now shut up. How many times do I have to drill it into your thick skull?"
"Fine then! I'm going back to base!"
"Then go, I'll appreciate the quiet."
She stormed out of the room. Jerk! You wait with him for three hours, and not any form of gratitude! Pity that car did nothing to his head! Everyone looked at her when she entered base.
"Is he awake?"
"He went back to sleep!"
"Then why are you here instead of watching him? Why are you angry?"
"He told me to go because 'I was too noisy'!"
"That sounds like Naru. He really knows how to push your buttons, doesn't he?"
"Well of course," started Yasuhara, "he is her boy-" Mai glared at him. "-ss." He finished, trying to make it seem that he had said 'boss' instead of 'boyfriend'.
"That car did nothing to his head!"
"The car didn't hit his head, Mai."
"I know! Sometimes I wish it had!"
"No, you need to think through these things. If it hit his head, it might cause his face to be squashed. You wouldn't want that, would you?"
"Stupid bloody ghost…"
"What time is it?"
"About midnight."
"I'm going to bed, it's late."
"Same."
They all went to bed (except Lin, he was still typing).
Yes, the ghost does seem to be picking on Naru huh. Well, tbf almost everyone has some fear or want to do with him, even if it's 'I wish he wouldn't make me do work that makes my nails break' which hasn't actually featured yet, but maybe we'll sneak it in somewhere. Then again maybe not.