Chapter Thirteen – Skeletons

Yui followed Subaru back to his dorm room, which was one floor up from where they had been. Subaru had, luckily, been visiting a friend. The former Miko walked into the room and looked around. The room was small, with two beds and a couch crammed into the room. Each roommate had a desk with a computer on it, and both sides of the room had a small wardrobe. There was also a sink against the left wall. Clothes were strewn about and there was a piece of day old pizza stuck to the couch. The room smelled vaguely of pork rinds and socks.

"This is... nice..." she said, smiling politely.

"It's a sty. My roommate can't figure out how to stay clean. That or he's too lazy. I always wanted to room with Taka... he was very tidy and scrupulous. And very thrifty, come to think of it..."

"Taka was a great guy," she smiled sadly.

"Yeah, he was a good friend. I miss him. I feel sorry for Miaka-chan... I'm sure she's still heartbroken," he peeled the pizza from the couch and cleared a spot for Yui to sit. "Sit down, please."

"Thank you," she nodded and took a seat. "So can you tell me about what happened on May first? When was this?"

"Three years ago. Taka was a freshmen. He was working for some extra cash by tutoring students at Itoki Preparatory, the private girl's school just outside of town. He was asked to chaperon a trip with that school and the brother school of Itoki. They took a trip to America for three weeks."

"I remember that. Miaka was frantic until the day he returned. What happened that made it so significant?" Yui questioned.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell Miaka this, but Taka got a little drunk. It was a Friday, and, well, you know. The Americans were eager to show the Japanese a good time. Taka went back to his room and found this student from Itoki in his room. She was one of the ones he tutored, I think, and everybody knew she was crushing on him... always followed him around and the like. Anyway, she kissed him and they got a little hot and heavy, if you know what I mean..."

"Oh goodness... they didn't... you know..."

"No! No... Taka realized what he was doing and sent her away. It wasn't his fault, she jumped him while he was weak, but he didn't want Miaka to know. He loved her so much and he knew it would hurt her. Plus, from what I gathered, she and the other girl knew each other somehow. It would have been awkward for everybody so we all just kind of swept it under the rug."

"So this must be what the blackmail was about. Somebody must have seen it or taken pictures or something... But that doesn't seem like enough to blackmail him. Miaka would have understood," Yui pondered aloud.

"Blackmail?" Subaru questioned.

"We also dug up some letters when we were cleaning. They were threatening to tell or do something unless he gave up on Miaka. I guess somebody was obsessed with him."

"Him or Miaka," he said with a shrug.

"Yeah..." she looked over to him. "Yeah, you might be right. Do you have any idea of what else somebody could have on Taka?"

"Well, from what I know, his parents were really poor when they were young. He sort of eluded a few times that they did some things they weren't proud of, so maybe it was something they did. You should talk to Eso Ken, he was closer to Taka than I was. Maybe he mentioned something. You can find him in 358 of the next building over."

"Thanks, I'll do that," she stood up. "This was really helpful."

"It's always a pleasure to assist a lovely lady like yourself. Good luck, Yui-san," he stood up and took her hand, kissing it lightly. Yui blushed and was shown out.

Tetsuya and Keisuke walked into the hospital. A dull ache washed over the blonde, his chest clenching. He grabbed Tetsuya's shoulder to steady himself.

"Sorry," he shook his head slightly. "I feel woozy when I come here... it must be a conditioned response. Every time I came here toward, you know, the end, I felt ill because I knew what was coming. Just walking in those doors makes me feel like I'm going to collapse."

"Sir?" an attractive young nurse with red hair and green eyes asked him, taking his arm. "Are you all right? Please, sit down."

"I'm okay, I'm just a little lightheaded," he smiled weakly, being unable to ignore how pretty the nurse was. Her small hands fluttering over his wrist and forehead and everywhere else (well, almost everywhere) was not helping his lightheadedness one little bit.

"Did you come because you felt ill?" she asked, looking at him curiously, his hand still resting in hers. She blushed and released it quickly.

"No, we came to find out about a friend," Tetsuya interjected, a bit annoyed. Now was not the time for flirting.

"What room is he in? Can I help you find him?" she asked, standing up.

"He's dead," Tetsuya said.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!" the young woman covered her mouth in slight horror.

Keisuke shook his head. "It was a year ago."

"Were you all friends?" she asked.

"He was going to be my brother-in-law," he said softly. "I got sick because coming back here reminds me of his last days. We suspected foul play about his death. He was a healthy twenty-one year old. In fact, he was the healthiest guy I knew. It wasn't cancer and it wasn't anything they could test. The results were all inconclusive, but he kept getting sicker, even in the hospital."

"We were wondering if we could see his records," Tetsuya cut to the chase.

"I'm afraid those are confidential... according to the new HIPAA regulations we're not allowed to release those without his consent, and well, since he's not with us..." she trailed off. "I'm sorry."

"He would have wanted us to know," Keisuke defended. "My sister was going to marry him... I know this is what he would have wanted. She needs closure."

"I sympathize, but I really shouldn't..."

"It's a matter of life or death. Look, my sister is on a cruise and we think somebody is out to kill... another friend of ours," Keisuke inwardly grimaced as he said it. Nakago was certainly not his friend. "If we don't find out who it is, we may not make it in time. I can't see Miaka lose somebody else she cares for. Please?"

"All right..." she agreed reluctantly. "If it's that important."

"Thank you... anything you can give us, test results, visitor records, food records; anything and everything," Keisuke pleaded.

"Come with me to records," she said quickly. "We must be fast. Right now, the staff is on lunch break. There shouldn't be anybody down there. You come with me and wait by the door, and we'll go from there."

"Give me that toilet paper," Nakago said, looking down one hallway. Muji pulled it out of his pants and handed it to the tall blonde. He lifted an eyebrow delicately, but didn't say anything about the place from which the paper had been produced. Nakago stuffed a beer bottle he had taken from the captain's office into the roll and then took out a small bottle of Vodka, soaking the toilet paper with the alcohol and then rolling it down the hall. It bumped into a man's boot.

"Who's there?" he asked immediately, looking at the end of the hall. There were at least twenty guards in the hall, apparently congregating there for some unknown reason. They seemed to be trying to break into the vault.

Nakago took out another lighter.

"You're not going to..." Muji protested weakly.

Nakago smirked and lit the end of the toilet paper. The flames ran along the little squares at an incredible rate.

"Run!" the man at the other end of the hall yelled.

Nakago grabbed Muji by the collar and dragged him down the opposite hall. There was a loud explosion and then the sprinklers engaged. The other man saw Nakago's hair flatten with the weight of the water and he grinned, from Muji's point of view, a little bit malevolently.

"And now that we've let them know we're here, I expect things will get a lot more interesting," Nakago stated coolly as they moved quickly down the opposite hallway.

"Why did you do that?" the waiter asked furiously. "Now they're going to be on us like white on rice! Are you trying to get us killed?"

"On the contrary," he smirked. "Now Miaka knows we're coming for her, and so will whoever is in charge of this mission."

"What purpose will that serve other than to prepare them for our arrival?" Muji asked.

"To make them very nervous," he said, trying to suppress a grin. "Anybody who is crazy enough to attempt to blow up part of the ship is going to inspire a bit of fear, wouldn't you agree?"

"That's true..."

"Besides, when people are afraid, they naturally run to their home base to find out the details of the event. In short," he smirked, seeing a frightened looking guard dash past in the next hallway. "They will go to their boss, which is where Miaka is."

Miaka smiled as she felt the ship shake slightly. The sprinklers soaked the room with water, shorting out an expensive looking laptop and causing James to emerge from the room with Nifei, looking infuriated. He grabbed the other girl's slim neck and pulled her upright. Miaka gagged and struggled.

"What did you do!" he demanded.

"Nothing," she croaked. "Does it look like I did anything?"

The man looked around suspiciously and discovered that aside from the obvious water damage, nothing had exploded within the room. He released her.

"Who was it?" he yelled into the comm device. The receiver sparked and buzzed. "Damn it!"

"Sir," a man burst into the room. "I saw it happen!"

"Don't just stand there like a limp noodle, tell me what happened, you baffoon!" he shouted, storming toward the terrified man.

"I-I'm sorry, sir. We were trying to get into..." he glanced at Miaka. "The place you told us to when um... a roll of toilet paper hit Hora's boot. There was a blonde man at the end of the hallway, and he lit the paper. It caught fire and then it exploded. Nobody was seriously injured, but the hall collapsed there. We tried to get back in, but we couldn't..."

The man roared in rage and punched the wall, cracking it. Miaka looked curiously between them. Was there something in there that was important?

"And now, you fool, you led him right to us. We need to relocate."

Just as James hauled Miaka to her feet to drag her elsewhere, a smooth, silky voice boomed over the intercom system.

"I would like to ask for the attention of the scum who decided to take my Miko captive. You made a grave miscalculation in challenging me. I have informed the coast guard of your little excursion. They should be here in a few short hours. That being said, you have two options. Return Miaka to me, or I will come get her myself. Consider yourself warned."

Miaka smiled at the man who's face grew redder by the minute. He threw Miaka to the floor and stormed to the hall where more soldiers had gathered. "What are you standing around for? Get to the communications room and bring that bastard to me!"

Yui had been running from person to person all day. The numbers seemed to be highly significant after all. Each one brought her to a new person that told her more about events that had occurred before Tamahome's death. She had reached the last set of numbers, finally. The last person she'd met had told her that it looked like an address but it was too vague to discover where. They had no idea of prefecture or anything, but she had gathered enough information to start forming some solid conclusions. She hoped Tetsuya and Keisuke were fairing as well as she was.

Yui returned to the Yuuki apartment and found Tetsuya and Keisuke already there, with another woman. "Oh, you're back," Yui hurried inside, sitting down with all her notes. After Subaru, she had begun to take notes on what was said so that she wouldn't forget anything when relaying it to Keisuke and Tetsuya later. "Who's your friend, Keisuke?" she glared at Tetsuya, feeling a wave of jealously overtake her momentarily.

"This is Hani," he said, a silly smile on his face. "She helped us get Tamahome's records from the hospital. She's really nice."

The young woman blushed and forced her voice to remain business-like. "It doesn't look like there's anything out of the ordinary with his care. His tests were all inconclusive, but he was having massive kidney failure. He was in line for a donor but was too far down. His symptoms were acute so he was at the bottom of the list."

"Did you find anything, Yui?" Tetsuya asked.

"You won't believe what I found," she said. "But... it's kind of personal..." the young woman glanced to Hani.

"It's okay, she's an accomplice in our thievery. She won't tell. What is it?" the blonde's boyfriend inquired.

"This may take a while," she opened the diary, letting a huge pile of papers fall out. "But I'll start at the beginning."

Yui pulled out the notes in order of who she had seen (she had had the good sense to number them), and began to relay to her rapt audience what she had learned.

In the next room of the Yuuki apartment, the Shijintenshisho began to glow. Within the world of the book, an evil being stirred. He had been asleep for thousands of years, his body bound to the words of the book. Deep within him, he felt a change had occurred. The chains that bound him were loosened. The world of the Four Gods was close to the place he had once lived. He had been sealed into this object millennia before, but now the worlds had touched, and the world of the book and the world of his origin were becoming one.

The being, an ancient sorcerer, no longer man, but a deity in his own right, reached out his tendrils into the world. He felt his servants, revived, doing his bidding. His body, bound inside the book, had been asleep, his spirit residing in the hells of his world.

"Find it," he breathed, feeling the beginning of his body's revival. "Find the Stone of the Four Gods."