I'll do my best to get you the next chapter as soon as possible. ^.^ Though this story is turning out longer than I expected. All the clues have to meet just right, and there's always more space for horrible things to happen...
12
I heard the squeak of the toilet seat as Naru sat down on it. He didn't say anything as I cried and peeled off my clothes, then turned on the hot shower. He took the empty cup, but I didn't hear him walk away. He stayed until the water ran cold and I was forced to switch it off. Then the toilet seat creaked and a towel was handed around the curtain, which I took. I caught his hand before he could pull it back.
"I love you," I said.
"I love you too," he said. "Would you like some tea? Plain water can be hard on the stomach."
I could feel my mouth twitch, but I had temporarily forgotten how to smile. "Oh the random things you know."
"…my brother…"
I cocked my head, though he couldn't see it. "What about him?"
"He…he'd have visions like these. Some would make him sick too. I know this sounds horrible, but I'm a little relieved that, at least in part, I know what I can do."
"That doesn't sound horrible."
"Tea?"
"Actually…could you stay? Just…just until I'm ready to get out…"
"Sure."
I hung the towel over my head as I watched the thinnest trickle of pink water run between my feet. I felt raw, as though I had been scooped out like a turkey and restuffed with filler and not myself. I didn't want Naru to leave. Things came when you were alone. And his presence there somehow eased the ache, because I knew of his concern and care for me.
When the tub's hard surface combined with my cramps started to nick at my breath, I pushed myself to my feet and wrapped the towel tight about me. The toilet seat creaked once more as Naru stood to leave.
"Wait…"
I pulled back the curtain, trembling, allowing the gray light from the tiny bathroom window to reach out to him. The blue of his eyes shone out against the pallor of his skin, and his hair, already reaching on the long side, curved about them, outlining them in art-perfect contrast. My hands looked somehow paler as I reached out to cup his face.
"My Oliver," I found myself murmuring to myself in an attempt to soothe the ache inside of me that I only partly understood. I brushed my thumb across his cheek bones; such sharp, proud things. His eyelids fluttered closed and he let out a swoop of breath.
"Yes. Yours. Always yours."
Yes. That helped. A quilt thrown over cold skin. Now just to wait to warm up; to wait until the pain passed. Everything would be okay.
Unable to help myself, I stepped into him and pressed my lips against his. He jumped only a little, and I had to smile as his hands fluttered about me, unsure of how to hold me dressed only in a towel as I was. The fact that I was still in a great deal of pain helped temper the mischievous side of me and I stepped back from him.
"Tea would be lovely," I said.
He nodded and left, closing the door behind him. It was only then that I noticed the jeans and loose T-shirt on the counter, complete with underwear and bra. I smirked. Now, when had he snuck out and gotten that?
I left the bathroom still smirking.
"I hope you didn't get too pervy of thoughts going through my underclothes."
The black dressed figure at the stove jerked. Ha. "I guess I don't have to ask if you're feeling better if you're well enough to tease me."
"Just so you know, that silky red pair I got because it was on clearance, not because I was thinking of you."
"That's not an excuse. You just want me to think about it."
I threw up my hands and started my little period-pain hobble to my beloved old loveseat. "Guilty. I take pride in being the only one in the world to make the almighty Naru squirm."
He turned around with two mugs in hand, unamused, as I had expected. He was forcing it, I just knew it. He didn't want to give me the satisfaction, even while I was down. "I need to see if Swii was the one in your vision or not. If he did use scopolamine, we have a timeframe of where to find your ghost, as well as a connection to the case. The white ghost girl died over thirty years ago, so we'll have strong evidence to disprove whether or not the murder was caused by her."
I sighed. "It's all business with you."
That got a thin-lipped smile from him as he made his way over and set the mugs on my little dollar store coffee table. "Once we know that, we'll also have a connection back to the murder case. But we still have girls to question and a list to compile of all the students that have died while attending Tokyo University. If this ghost is the white girl, then…that's a thirty years of work and we're no closer to solving our case than we were before. Knowing she was raped tells us nothing."
"Except maybe why she'd commit suicide," I said, curling around my mug of hot tea to breathe it in.
"Or why she would kill men," said Naru with a nod. "Though why they're only unfaithful men…I think it is more likely we are dealing with humans. People can be remarkably ingenuitive when it comes to murder. A locked door and window hardly counts as obstacles." His own cup of tea stopped half way between the table and his mouth, his eyes suddenly unfocused. "Unless…"
When he didn't complete that sentence and continued to frown at my poor TV-less stand, I prodded him with my foot. "You know how much I hate it when you leave me hanging."
"Unless this ghost is a girl who knows Swii, which means scopolamine could still be on Tokyo Campus, which means…"
My eyes widened and my stomach did a nasty squirm. "Could you make someone kill themselves with that stuff?"
Naru shrugged. "I can't see why not. Give him a knife, then tell him to walk into his room and slit his throat."
"Which means Swii could be our suspect."
"Possibly. Or," he took a sip of his hot tea. How he could do that before it cooled was beyond me. "Or it could be someone connected to the girl that possessed you. Either way, she's probably seeking justice for what was done to her, white girl or not."
I frowned down at my milky chai. Of course Naru knew how I liked it and had made it perfectly. "Wouldn't that make Swii a target too whether the murderer is a ghost or a human?"
Naru frowned at me. "I'm not following you."
"Rape and sco-whatsit drug. Rape is what could connect Swii and Joe. Does it even have anything to do with infidelity?"
"It has to if the murderer is human and wants to keep their cover. If the murderer is a spirit, however…" he groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Damnit. There's too many inconsistencies. What does the stupid kanji suppose to do with any of this? Unless that girl you talked to was lying."
I frowned. "I know she wasn't lying when she said she didn't murder him. I could feel it, just like with that hexer case three years ago. The voice in my chest."
"You don't have to explain it to me, I believe you. But either someone is lying or we need someone else to be killed in order to line up more clues."
Just then, his phone went off. Both of us looked stupidly around us as though we'd never heard the dry, business like ring before Naru remembered it and took his phone out from his pocket.
"Lin?" There was a max of thirty seconds, then Naru's expression blanched. "Right. Tell the investigator to test Joe's body for scopolamine as well as this one. If you could also give him our findings up until now, including the blog…I understand…I'll be there in a minute." With that, Naru hung up, put his tea down, and stood. "Wish granted."
"What?" I grew alarmed when it became apparent he was about to leave me. "Where are you going? What happened?"
"Someone found another boy dead. Apparently he died last night from loss of blood, but he had locked himself into his room to cut his own throat. His roommate just found him."
