The forever piece
Chapter 6: Japan

I look out the window of the airplane and I see all the neon lights below. It is supposed to be night but the city is still lit up with signs and various other lights. As soon as the plan lands, we are going to take a taxi to the country side of Tokyo where we will find where my grandparents lived.

Soul squeezes my hand and kisses my knuckles. "How are you feeling?"

I smile wide. I couldn't be any happier than I am at the moment. Having Soul beside me in this journey is exactly what I need. Without Soul, I wouldn't know what to do. I'm very grateful he could take a week off to come with me to Japan. It was no problem for me to leave my work place since all I really do is read the books we get who wants to have them published. I had taken a few books with me and my right hand Tsugumi would keep an eye on the economy along with the workers to make sure the place was safe and running.

"I'm nervous. I'm going to meet my grandparents tomorrow and I'm kind of excited but I'm also scared. I know my mama and papa left Japan because of mama's dream to become a singer, but I always had a feeling it wasn't the whole truth." I look into Soul's eyes. "What do you think? Aren't you nervous?"

Soul chuckles and slowly shakes his head. "Nah, I am a little worried of what you will find in Japan but other than that I'm not really that worried. Whatever we will find here I hope it will give you exactly what you need to move on." Soul smiles and pushes a hair strand behind my ear. "Besides, it will be interesting to meet your grandparents. It will be cool to know about your origins and explore Japan's culture."

I caress his jaw line with my index finger. I move closer to him. "Yeah, I hope my grandparents will be able to give me something we could use."

The aircraft lands and we both grab our things and exit the plane. We get our suitcases from the band and we get a cab to drive us to our hotel. We reach the hotel two hours later and we both get into bed and I fall asleep in Soul's secure arms.

The dream started all over again. I'm standing in a desert, much like the one outside of Death City. The sand burns my bare feet while the sun beats me down to the ground with its heated rays. Immediately sweat pearls starts growing on my forehead and sweat rings start to appear on my clothes. I start walking toward the usual hill of sand where Kami always use to appear in my dreams. As usual, I hear my mother's singing and she encourages me to sing with her. I do as she says and sings with her as usual. When I get on top of the hill, the empty space and cactuses are replaces with trees. Trees that reach sky high and their roots digging down into the sand. Through the forest I see my mother in standing there in her long dress she wears on her cover of her CD. The long dress sways with the wind and exposes her long legs.

"Maka," mama says smiling wide while she holds her hand out toward me. "My dear Maka."

"Mama!" I yell and tears start rolling down my cheeks. My feet start moving toward her. This time, please dream, let me reach her! "Please! Wait for me!"

My mama smiles toward me and she takes a step toward the cliff behind her. My spit gets stuck in my throat. Please don't jump! "Maka," She tilts her head and smiles cutely, the exact same smile I do. "Don't get married."

My eyes widen while I run toward her. I'm almost out of the forest. "What? Why? Soul is amazing! He has loved me for years and he has never given me a reason not to trust him! He won't betray me! He is just as great as papa was to you!"

"You know why." With one step backwards, she falls over the edge.

"MAMA!" I scream and I run the edge but the tree's vines wraps around my wrists and ankles. I use every cell in my body to fight out of the vines but the harder I struggle, the harder the vines tighten around my limbs. "NOOOOOOOOO!"

"Maka!"

I gasp loudly and I find myself in mine and Soul's bed inside of the hotel room. Soul's hands are on my shoulders and he looks very concerned at me. "Did you have the same nightmare?"

I burst out in tears and I hug Soul tightly. "Kind of." Soul's arms wraps tightly around me. "My mama told me not to get married to you. I asked her why and she said I knew why. I don't know what she is trying to tell me. You haven't done anything wrong." I can't keep this away from Soul. This is too important to keep a secret. He needs to know what my mother told me.

"That's odd." Soul rubs my back. "Why would she want to warn you? I'm not hiding anything from you and I haven't done anything wrong either. Maybe we will find something today that can explain her warning."

I nod and sniffle.

After Soul manage to comfort me enough to stop crying, we got dressed and it was already noon in Japan. Soul had already prepared a map to my grandparents' house along the address Spirit had given him. It wasn't that far away from our hotel it would be an hour walk to get there. We could admire the outskirt of Tokyo and enjoy the cherry trees blooming.

We had our breakfast or lunch at a café on our way toward our destination. It was a small little café with fresh picked cherry blossoms on the table. They had steamed white rice with a beaten egg over the rice. To the rice they served fish and miso soup. Usually I don't like fish that much, but eating it with the rice was very good. Soul he was all over the fish and the rice, but he wasn't that sure with the miso soup. It didn't really fit his taste bundles.

We continued our walk toward our destination. Soul holds my hand as we walked through the cherry blossoms raining from the trees. It was very beautiful. This walk is something I won't ever forget.

"We are almost there." Soul says as he looks at the map while he holds my hand. "We are going to take the first turn to the right and then the house will be on the left side."

My heart starts beating hard in my ribcage and I'm starting to turn nervous. What will they say? Will they welcome me into their home and give me the information I need or will they yell at me and ask us to get off their property? I don't know. Hopefully it will be the first one. When I was little I heard Tsubaki talk about her grandparents and I wanted to meet mine but for some reason I never got to see them. Something must have gone down for them not to have contact with my parents.

We turn left and Soul squeezes my hand. He puts the map in his pocket and he points toward a house. "That is the house."

It is a very old Japanese house. It has slide doors instead of our doors we are used to in Death City. The garden is full with weeds and the grass is tall. The large house hasn't been repainted in quite some time and it could use one. The house looks abandoned and the mailbox is filled with mail and newspapers.

"Are you sure this is the correct address?" I can't help but get a sinking feeling in my stomach.

Soul nods. "Yeah, this is the address Spirit gave me." He says. "Maybe they moved away from here."

I slowly shake my head. "This is a house with a great potential. I don't think they would just abandon it and move to a different one without selling it. They would lose a lot of money that way."

"There is only one way we can find out." Soul says and he walks inside of the garden and I'm quick to follow.

"We can't just barge in like this!"

"What other option do we have? We thought of knocking at their door before and that is exactly what we are doing. We aren't doing anything wrong." Soul says while he walks up to the slide door and knocks. I wait beside him but no one opens the door. It remains shut and no sounds are heard. "As it looks like, it is abandoned. They aren't here anymore."

"What are we going to do now?"

Before I know it, Soul is walking out of the garden and I'm following close after him. "Maybe we can find some sort of clue inside of the mailbox." He opens it and starts going through their letters.

"Wait!" I say while I try to grab the letters from his hands. "That is rude!"

"What? You are relatives to them."

"That doesn't mean we can just go through their mail!" I say while I try to reach the letters in his hand but they are too high. Damn Soul for being so damn tall! "Put them back! We can find them on our own! We don't need to go through their mail!"

Someone behind us yell at us in Japanese. We both turn around as in shock, my hands are still trying to get the letters while Soul holds the letters high. The man walks toward us while he keeps talking Japanese.

"Excuse us, but we don't speak Japanese." I'm quick to say in Japanese and I pull away from Soul while he hides the letters behind his back.

The Japanese man raises his eyebrow and tilts his head. "Are you two Americans?" He says in English with a strong Japanese accent.

"Yes, we are here searching for the elderly couple who lived in this house. Their name is Albarn. Do you know where they moved?" I ask friendly and he looks at Soul and I suspiciously with his dark eyes.

"What business do you have with the Albarn?"

"My name is Maka Albarn and my mother is Kami Albarn. I'm here to find my grandparents to ask them some questions about my mother since she is dead."

The man seems to light up and get very friendly as soon as he hears my last name along with my motives. "Maka Albarn! So you have finally come to Japan!" He walks up to me with open arms and hugs me. "We have been expecting you since elderly Albarns died."

I hug him back and Soul gives him a suspicious look. My eyes are wide and I pull away from him. "Wait, are they dead?"

The man nods and keeps his hands on my shoulders. "Yes they are Albarn-dono. Mrs. Albarn-sama died three years ago and Mr. Albarn-sama died a year ago. Their paddy fields are rightfully yours since Mrs. Kami Albarn-sama had passed away and you are the only one left in the Albarn family. They send you a letter but I guess it never reached you."

I raise my eyebrow. This is too much information and this only sprouts new questions in my mind along with a heavy sadness blooms in my chest. "What? Why did you call me -dono? Who was supposed to send me a letter? I'm not following at all."

The man grabs my hand and starts to tug me away. "Albarn-dono, come this way. I will explain everything. I will show you the paddy fields you own. I will explain everything there."

"Wait, um, okay." I turn toward Soul and I see him following beside me. His eyes are glued to our entwined hands and he quickly sneaks his hand and separates our hands and grabs mine. The man looks back at us and he looks toward a very much suspicious Soul.

"I'm her fiancé. The name is Soul Evans."

The man seems very much not affected by the threatening glares of Soul's. "Ah okay, sorry about that then." He offers his hand toward Soul. "My name is Gopher." Soul grabs his hand and shakes it politely but the suspiciousness in his eyes never wavers.

"Nice to meet you."

Gopher smiles and pulls back his hand. "Now! Come! I will show you your paddy fields Albarn-dono!"