It had been three days since the 'incident'. Ayako had ordered Naru to give me two days off to rest and recuperate. Even though I'm sure he wanted to say no, he couldn't really ignore the doctor's orders. Ayako had prescribed me some sleeping pills which had helped me quite a lot. Not only did they put me to sleep, I didn't have any dreams. I couldn't remember the last time I'd had such peaceful sleep. I was really grateful to have her in my life.
Anyway, I received a call yesterday from Lin, telling me that Naru had taken on a new case. I was to be down at the office for nine thirty with supplies that would last me about a week. He didn't say where we were going, only that it was quite a long journey so I might want to take something to do. I had packed various items of clothing, underwear, books and my MP3 player. It wasn't exactly an iPod touch, but it was better than nothing. I looked at the digital clock on my bedside table. It was eight forty-five, meaning that if I set of then, I would be early to the office, which didn't happen very often.
I double checked that I had everything I needed, unplugged all the electric appliances and left the apartment.
By the time I'd got to the office, Bou and Lin had already loaded everything into the van and Yasu and John had just arrived. Ayako was chatting quietly with Masako at the side of the van. Maybe they were chatting about the case, which I still knew nothing about. I made a mental note to ask them about it later.
I made my way to the kitchen and decided to make Naru a flask of tea for the journey. I can't imagine what he'd be like if he went five hours without tea…after a minutes thought, I decided that it would probably be best to make two flasks.
I couldn't put into words how much better I felt after two days of rest and dreamless sleep. I was totally refreshed and ready to work hard.
"You look like you're feeling better." Bou said from behind me. I turned around and was quickly wrapped into a bone crushing bear hug. It was annoying, but I had really missed Bou and his brother like behaviour. I'd missed everyone, everyone except Naru that was. It had been a luxury to not have to make him any tea for a couple of days, not that I actually minded making him tea, but I didn't particularly enjoy it either. Naru always treats me like an object instead of a real person. I can't even begin to explain how much that irritates me.
"We're ready to go." I heard Lin announce from the main room.
"Okay, we'll be down in a minute." I replied. I finished screwing the lids onto the flasks and gave them to Bou to carry.
"Why am I carrying these?" He asked.
"Stop complaining and be a gentleman for once." I retorted. I strode out of the kitchen, smiling at Bou's angry yelling behind me.
We were split up into two groups. Naru, Lin, Masako and Yasu were going in the van and Ayako, Takigawa, John and I were going in Bou's car. I sat in the back with John and Ayako was in the front with Bou who was driving. Bou started up the car and we began to follow the van in front of us.
John and I talked for a while about various things. He told me about how his work at the church was going and all about Australia and his family back home. After a while, we ran out of things to talk about, so I put my earphones in and switched on my MP3 player. I could faintly hear Ayako and Bou begin to argue loudly behind the music, but it wasn't annoying. It had come to be a homely sound, and soon it had sent me off to sleep.
"Mai. Mai, it's time to wake up." I heard John say. I pulled my headphones out of my ears and looked around. We clearly weren't at the house we were investigating, unless we investigating a haunted service station, and I highly doubted that Naru would take on a case here.
"What are we doing here?" I asked sleepily.
"We're stopping off for lunch here. Ayako was complaining about hungry so we phoned Naru and he said that we could make a short stop here." Bou explained as I got out of the car. "And we all know what Ayako gets like when she doesn't have any food."
"What did you just say?" Ayako yelled in Bou's ear, hitting him over the head with her purse.
"Nothing." Said Bou in a sing song voice. "I didn't say anything." Ayako was about to hit him again, so I decided it would be a good time to intervene.
"So, what are we getting to eat?" I asked.
"Whatever you want. My treat." Bou said as he dragged me towards the entrance. The doors slid open automatically and we stepped into the building. Inside, there was a breakfast bar, a food counter and a newsagent. Everyone wanted a hot meal, but I didn't really feel like one. Bou handed me a ¥1000 note and told me to get whatever I wanted, along with a large bag of crisps for him and Ayako to share.
I walked into the shop and straight over to the sandwich section. In the end, I decided on a jam and pickle sandwich, along with many assorted bags of sweets and biscuits that would last me the week. I got Bou and Ayako some prawn cocktail crisps, I mean, who doesn't like prawn cocktail? Also I decided to get John a little something. After paying for everything, I had about ¥260 change to give back to Bou.
I left the newsagent and wandered over to the seating area where the rest of the team was sat and pulled up a chair.
"I got you and Ayako prawn cocktail crisps. Is that okay?" I asked Bou. He nodded and smiled at me. I decided that it was time to present John with his 'thoughtful' gifts.
"I got these for you to try John." I said, handing him a bottle of curry flavoured lemonade and a bag of roasted baby crabs. "I just thought that seeing as you're in Japan, you should try some of our delicacies. He took them from me and stared at them with a look of disgust on his face, which quickly turned into a warm smile when he realised that I was watching him.
"Wow Mai! These look…delicious!" He said, holding up the weird snacks. The truth was that I'd never heard of these in my life, let alone tried them, but I wasn't about to tell him that. I think Bou and Ayako had gotten an idea of what I was doing by then and decided to join in.
"Oh! I love those!" Ayako exclaimed. "You should try them. They're really nice!"
"Yeah. I have like ten packs of those crabs at home." Bou said. I was trying my best not to laugh as John looked down at the crabs and began to slowly open the packet.
"You know what?" John said in his amusing Australian accent. "I think I'll start with the lemonade first." He actually looked a bit scared when he unscrewed the lid. He looked at us, then at the bottle and raised it to his lips. He took a sip, pulled a strange face, swallowed and then put the bottle down. He shivered slightly.
"Wow. That was really…nice. Thanks Mai." Let's face it. John was the nicest guy I was ever going to meet, but that didn't stop any of us from making fun of him. He picked up the bag and crabs and tore the top off. He carefully picked one out of the bag by one of its legs and was about to eat it when Lin decided it was time to intervene.
"I think it's time we got going." He said bluntly. John quickly dropped the crab and sighed in relief.
"I was thinking exactly the same thing." He said. We all laughed at him, but not in a mean way. I picked up my bag of food and we made our way back to the car. It was bright outside. The sun glinted off the surface of Bou's car, making me squint. Maybe I should've brought my sunglasses. I didn't think the weather was going to be this great.
According to Lin, there was only around two hours left of the journey. Bou decided to turn on the radio and open the windows, considering how warm it was outside. I got my sandwich out of the plastic carrier bag and began to munch happily on it. When I'd finished it, I offered some of my sweets to John, but he declined. I think he was worried that they were going to be something incredibly weird and disgusting.
I finished off the bag of sweets, stuffed the packaging back into the bag and looked out of the window. It was then that I realised we were on a country road somewhere. All around us were trees and hills. It didn't look like there was any sort of building for miles around.
"Are you sure we're going the right way Bou?" I asked nervously. I hated getting lost.
"I'm just following Naru and Lin. If we're lost, you can blame them, although I highly doubt that we'd get lost with Lin navigating. He's like a human Sat Nav."
I decided that I should stop worrying, so I got my MP3 player out of my bag again and inserted the headphones into my ears. I don't think I went to sleep, I just dozed on and off for the car journey.
After what seemed like forever, the car finally came to a stop. I opened my eyes, put my MP3 player in my bag and pushed open the car door. I stood in awe as I stared up at the broad structure in front of me. Towering above me stood a grand mansion. It was old, run down and slightly creepy looking, but it had a look of elegance and beauty that made me just want to gaze at it forever. It amazed me how something this beautiful could be out here in the middle of nowhere, with nobody to admire it.
The old wooden front door of the mansion slowly creaked open, and a figure stepped out. It was a woman. She looked like she was in her mid-thirties, but could've easily been in her forties. She had shoulder length straight black hair and piercing eyes that seemed to look straight into your soul.
"Welcome to my home. I've been waiting for you."