Monsters are nothing compared to people.
Chapter 9
When I got back, I remembered to tell Naru that I had dreamt of the girl from the tree that night before. He took it with a frown and decided to call Masako to see if she could drop by and get a view of the spirit. He then went about setting up equipment in base so as to keep an eye on the girl who supposedly had taken to following me around ever since I'd been to the library that night.
He seemed just as interested in the rape blog as I was.
"Good work, Mai. Not even the detective was able to get that." The corner of his mouth twitched. "Though it's quite obvious he doesn't have the touch with people that he thinks he has."
"So we can get the name of this girl, maybe we have a suspect with a, what's it called…reason? Jeeze, you'd think with all the mystery novels I read I'd have an amazing crime dialect. Really."
He rolled his eyes. "Rubbish like that hardly counts as edifying literature."
I harrumphed. "Have you ever even read one?"
"Yes. They're nauseatingly unrealistic and obvious from the beginning."
"You just haven't read any of the good ones."
"I'm also a genius."
"One of these days I need to record you when you say that. No one can sound so matter-of-fact while saying something so egotistic."
"That's because it is matter-of-fact." His attention turned to the doorway as Lin walked in with a few tin to go pans balanced in his hands. "Ah, lunch."
Trailing after him like a cartoon character riding the line of tasty scent was Yasu, who gave Naru a begging look. Naru shrugged and Yasu took that as invitation to scoop up one of the burritos the moment Lin lifted up the lid from the tins.
"Glorious, glorious Enrique's sweet pork burritos. Boss, I am shamelessly in love with your wallet."
"What's wrong with yours?" I asked. "Are those burritos expensive?"
"They don't give you money for being an honor student. I'm as poor a college student as it gets. My parents believe in making your own way in the world, you see. Think it builds character."
I grinned as he finished this with a huge, wolfish bite of the cheese-dripping burrito. "Looks like it just builds appetite. Man, am I glad I'm done with school."
"Oh yeah, you sa' somfing 'bout vat."
"Ugh, don't talk with your mouth full!"
"Which reminds me," Naru was much cleaner with his burrito. He put it on a plate and got out a fork. "What have you learned?"
"You're all business." But Yasu wiped off his hands on his jeans and pulled his backpack around. From inside he took out his slip of a netbook and flipped it open. As it booted, he twirled a string of cheese about his forefinger and sucked it off. "As per usual, they were wonderfully vague, but I did manage to trace the ghost story to one other death. I have the details written here along with witnesses that say he did the trial behind the library. His girlfriend in question was in an on and off again relationship with him. It was sort of a given that he got the sign, as they knew for a fact he wasn't picky about what bed he fell into, male or female, but he died of alcohol poisoning approximately three days afterwards."
"How long ago was this?" asked Naru.
"About a year and a half," said Yasu. "So it's reasonable to say the killer was the same person—if they are, that is."
"You said you had details, does this include place and time of death and the like?"
"Yes. I also got the name of the ex-girlfriend, though she's graduated since then and is working in a firm on the other side of the city."
"Email them to me."
Yasu grinned. "Already did."
"Wow. On top of it per usual," I said. "It's a good thing you're not Naru's assistant too or he'd probably fire me in favor of you."
"Nah. I doubt I'm as nice to kiss."
"One of these days, your attempts to rile me up will back fire on you," said Naru coolly. "I have one other thing I need you to do. Are you willing to lend us your student I.D. and password?"
Yasu relinquished them forthwith and, using the address I gave him, Naru pulled up a plain, black and red blog. No pictures or other decorations could be seen. It consisted of three pages: suspect, known, and unknown.
"What's that?" Yasu asked.
"You don't know?" Naru seemed intrigued. "We may have to do an evaluation of just how many of the students do. It was rather strange that that girl would be so secretive about it."
"No it isn't," I had quickly read through the first few entries on the default page, 'suspect.' "What would people say of her if they knew she had been on the rape blog? For whatever reason."
"'Ooo, you were raped?'" said Yasu.
"I'm rather at a loss as well," said Naru, who had clicked on the next page and scrolled a bit. "I thought the point of a blog like this was to glen support in coping with a horrible experience. Though, from what I'm reading so far, 'support' seems rather tame."
I wrinkled my nose at him. "Really? Though I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Look, most of the time when a girl is raped she feels like it's her fault, like being raped makes her some sort of slut or unwanted. There's also this fear that when she tells someone they'll ask for details to make sure it wasn't her fault, or that she wasn't just asking for it. Being raped makes you feel dirty as hell too, and some even wonder if any guy will want them after that. Also, some are afraid that by saying you got raped, some might convince you that you're just saying it as an excuse, or that guys will be afraid of dating you because you might just say they raped you or whatever. Course, there's other fears, but…" Naru, Yasu, as well as Lin, were staring at me. "What?"
"Nothing!" said Yasu, giving me a smile anyone would have interpreted as nervous. "Just, um, it sounds like you knew someone who had that happen to them or something."
I blinked. Then shrugged. "I just listen. And read."
Naru, who had an intensity to the way he stared at me, relaxed and looked back to the blog. "Once we find our victim's name I'll have Lin do a trace back to which student ID they used. Once we find this girl, Mai, I want you to do your thing."
"My 'thing'?"
"You know, be your sweet, compassionate self that everyone just wants to snuggle up to," said Yasu, preparing his last bit of his burrito for docking.
I was more than a little dismayed at this. "Whoa whoa, the dead guy's girlfriend was one thing, a murder suspect is completely different. Besides, you don't just go around asking someone if they were raped!"
"We don't need to know if she was raped," said Naru, who pushed the laptop back a bit so he could bring his burrito forward. "We need to know if she killed him."
"Oh ho, that's so much better."
"Mai, I brought you one as well," said Lin, pointing towards the lone tin waiting for me at the end of the table. He too ate his burrito with a plastic fork and knife.
I sighed and took up my burrito. I was hungry, after all. Even the prospect of interviewing a could be murderer couldn't distract me from that. As I ate, I read over Naru's shoulder as he found the post in question, sent it along to Lin, and opened up the email from Yasu. There wasn't much to the murder other than what he had already told us. A young man who died of alcohol poisoning at a party. Naru intermittingly scrolled down the email and took bites of his Mexican deliciousness.
"Why would someone from Columbia go to school here?" I asked, reading over the details.
"He was born in Columbia with his mother, who was also Columbian," said Yasu. "But he grew up here with his father. His mom had decided to stay there, something about Japan didn't agree with her, so they visited her every so often."
"Why didn't you include that in this?" Naru asked.
"I didn't think it was important. A lot of students here have half-Japanese heritage of some sort of another, or none at all. I've met quite a few Samoans, for example. Did you know they carry around pocket knives for the sole purpose of cutting up their feces because they're so large they can sit upright in the toilet—"
I choked half way through swallowing my first burrito bite. Sweet pork sauce burned up my nose as I struggled to clear my airway and laugh at the same time. Lin even started getting out of his seat to give me the Heimlich maneuver, but I managed just in time to get it down the right tube.
I couldn't tell which was funnier. The giant Samoan turds or the fact that Naru hadn't even twitched. Not so much as a smile.
"What, don't like bathroom facts, boss?" asked Yasu, who must have been on the same wavelength as me.
Naru didn't even grace that with an answer. He still had his eyes to the screen and his hands to the burrito.
Once I could breathe again, I went back to my own burrito. Yasu hadn't been kidding. These 'Enrique' burritos had to be the best Mexican food I had ever tasted. Maybe I'd have to get Naru to bring me back here sometime.
"I've got a name," said Lin. "Satachi Dainiche."
Yasu shook his head when Naru looked at him. "Never heard of her."
"I'm looking her up in the student database now," said Lin. "That was quick. She's a freshman majoring in Communications. I'll have to email the president for access to her schedule. Whether she gives it to me or not is a different story."
"I could always just email her student account. I don't know anyone who actually uses that, though," said Yasu. "In the meantime, I'll ask around about her."
"What about your classes?" I asked.
"Heading to one right now," he said, groaning as he stood and stretched. "My professor teaches a lower level communications class, so I can ask her. You got her name down on a piece of paper for me or something?"
Lin scribbled something down on a sticky note and handed it to him. Yasu thanked him, gave me a two finger salute, and set out. The door hissed as the hydraulic-thingy on the hinge slowed its closing.
"Well, if that's all," I stretched. "Is it alright if I take a nap?"
"Please do. We could use any information you can collect."
"Jeeze, no pressure." But I gave Naru a peck on the head anyways. "I'll be back. Bathroom."
There were more boys walking about this time when I headed to the bathroom. I considered walking the distance to the nearest building that had a girl's toilet, but figured it wouldn't be too big of a deal. They all knew we were here and that we'd be using their bathrooms anyways, so I walked in.
I instantly regretted it, as I walked in on Swii at one of the urinals. While I didn't see anything because of the stall walls, the trickle of urine came to an abrupt halt and he flushed red at the same time as I did.
"D-D-don't mind me, I'll just, um—" I moved to make an escape into a stall. Catching a boy peeing when you didn't see anything shouldn't be this embarrassing.
"No! It's okay, I'm just," he gave a nervous laugh. "Not many people use these anyways, and I, uh, I guess I needed to ask you some questions anyways."
I stayed still, hoping to redeem the situation somehow by showing some consideration to him. He zipped up and came about to a sink to wash his hands. I started getting antsy when he got to drying his hands and still hadn't asked his question. Bladder aside, I didn't want to linger in the men's bathroom longer than I had to.
Finally, he came my way to throw away his paper towel, holding onto it just a second longer. "Are you a virgin?"
I opened my mouth—surprise, indignation, and something like a rude comeback on its way out—and he pulled away the towel, opened his hand, and blew. White powder filled my face, my mouth, my nose. I coughed, alarmed, but the powder had been so fine I don't even think my airways noticed it was there. I could taste nothing, or smell nothing. My mouth almost instantly went dry, though, as though the white powder had sucked up all the moisture.
"Don't say anything," he said in sort of forced calm.
I went to tell him to shove it—but even as I thought it, it got lost somewhere. My mouth didn't move, and I started to feel…disconnected in a drowsy sort of sense. Had the bathroom tiles always been so white?
With the damp paper towel, he brushed off my face, and I let him without knowing why. My heart seemed to struggle to pick up its fearful beat, and something in the back of my head had started screaming, but I could do nothing. It was like I had been forcefully pushed out of the control station of my own body and now took a back seat to what was happening.
Swii threw the paper towel away. His hand trembled, but his eyes were bright. Excited. "Come on." He grabbed my wrist. His touch was hot.
And I followed him. We even passed by a few other boys who he smiled and nodded to as we passed, even moving down to holding my hand as though we were close. I could feel my face reflecting their smiles as I fought to cry out for help—to give some sign that I was being taken captive somehow. That something was happening.
Naru. Oh God, please, let him come looking for me. Let him get overprotective or whatever, just let him come looking for me.
Swii led my willing body to the top floor and down to a room. He unlocked it and led me in, almost gently. Dim gray light bled through the blue curtains, revealing a single bed dorm room, with dirty clothes stuffed into the corners, a smooth, just made bed, and a closed laptop on the desk. The air was thick with that certain weird smell that I had picked out from day one, the something like smoke, but too musky.
When he closed and locked the door behind me, I turned to ice. My muscles wouldn't listen—I could hardly feel them, trembling beneath his grasp, sweat building up in my armpits and between my legs.
Naru! Yasu! Lin! ANYONE!
"Lay down on the bed," he said, pulling me over towards the lone bed. Oh God, he didn't even have a roommate, so there was no chance of anyone walking in.
No! NO! What is happening—why can't I—NO! NARU!
Quiet and docile as a mouse, I laid out across his blue striped comforter.
Swii's breathing had picked up and his eyes—I couldn't stand the look of his eyes. Hungry. Hot. Feral.
I wanted to be sick. I had to be sick. Anything to show my brain still had some connection with my body.
Swii took his sweet time pulling off my shoes and socks. A pointing bulge had already pushed out the front of his pants by the time he reached my shorts.
"Take off your shirt," he said.
NO! NO! NO!
Naru said he was afraid of this. He said it would destroy him. He said it would destroy me—I had never had anyone in me before! I didn't want this, I didn't—I couldn't take it back—what if he—
My arms had already started to move to the hem of my shirt, tearing it off without a moment's hesitation. Swii groaned. His eyes ate up my breasts, and his fingers dipped beneath my bra. He tugged my shorts the rest of the way down and stuck his free fingers down my underwear.
WHY CAN'T I MOVE!?
"That's so hot…" he was leaning in, reaching behind my back for my bra strap, his fingers digging deeper and deeper. "It's alright, babe. You shouldn't remember any of this."
NARU!
