Black Phantom:
Chapter 6:
The day before the heist was the day that Naru met Mai's ex boyfriend. From the beginning of the day he had known that it was not going to be a normal day.
Firstly his personal tea maker had arrived fifteen minutes for work with heavily red rimmed eyes paired with black bags underneath. He had given her a mild reprimand and sent off to make tea and she had shuffled off aimlessly.
When his tea had arrived he had found that it was devoid of milk meaning that, for an Englishman, it was completely undrinkable so he had sent her away again. The next cup had had more milk than tea. The sight of her unhappy face had made him change his mind about telling her off again.
Later that morning, acting on a warning from Lin about Mai having too much spare time, he took her visit various suppliers of explosives to track down the ones placed in the fuse box and cameras. Naturally their search yielded nothing as his supplier was located in England with no connection to Japan.
It was on their way back to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police headquarters that something happened. The narcissist pulled onto a main road to find it jammed full of cars. He squinted ahead out the windscreen and spotted blue flashing lights.
"It must be an accident," he observed and glanced behind him to find that at least five cars were queued behind his car. "We are going to have to stay here for a while."
Mai nodded and stared out the window with a distant expression on her face. The Inspector gazed at her, trying to ignore the tantalising taste of her lips. He shook his head, what was he doing? He should be worried about the Inugami, the Sakurazukamori, Gene, anything but his kiss with Mai. This brought him back to his current dilemma.
"Mai."
She turned her head round to face him. "Yes?"
"Is there-"
A knock on the window interrupted him. Naru could see a grinning spectacled man with brown hair looking in. Judging from his uniform he was a traffic warden, maybe he can get us out of this traffic jam, he mused idly.
His attention was then caught by Mai smiling back at the traffic warden and opening the car door. That was right, Mai Taniyama had been a traffic warden prior to joining the task force so presumably she knew the aforementioned traffic warden.
What he was not expecting was for the traffic warden to throw his arms around his personal tea maker and pat her on the head. Much to his relief Mai did not settle into the hug and pulled back after about a minute. She glanced back at Naru and he shot her a questioning look.
"Naru, this is Yasuhara-san. We used to be colleagues. Yasuhara, this is Inspector Shibuya, my boss."
Yasuhara bowed his head in greeting whereas Naru did not. The traffic warden then swooned dramatically.
"Ah, Mai-chan, you mortally wound me. "Just a colleague..." Even the lovely Bou-san would elevate me higher."
The brunette officer gave him a playful elbow to the ribs. "Is the traffic going to be moving anytime soon?"
His teasing face became serious. "You know how it to works, Mai-chan. There's been an accident and all we can do is block the traffic until the team comes to clear the wreckage away."
"Give me an estimate."
"Quarter of an hour. One car or what was left of it, has been cleared," he paused. "I thought of you this morning, I know what day this is..."
The narcissist raised an eyebrow. It was a very homely conversation and he felt very excluded and why was that traffic warden's arm snaking around Mai's shoulder? As the conversation was clearly going to continue for a while, he deemed that it was safe to pull out his mobile phone to text Lin.
Who is Yasuhara in relation to Mai? He is a traffic warden
The reply came a few seconds later.
Ex boyfriend. It would be to your advantage to pay attention to the gossip of females.
Naru blinked, that explained Yasuhara's reaction to "just a colleague" and why he knew Bou-san.
Apparently today is an important day for Mai. Any ideas?
As Lin seemed to excel in picking up occasionally useful titbits of gossip he decided that there was no harm in trying.
In case you have not noticed, I do not partake in petty gossip with other officers.
It is not her birthday.
Naru read the reply with a raised eyebrow before staring over at Mai and Yasuhara again who had know stopped talking animatedly and were looking awkward with Mai staring past Yasuhara distantly like she had been all day.
Definitely not her birthday, the narcissist decided. Maybe someone in her family had taken ill and she was longing to visit them. If he gave her permission she might be absent from the heist and he would not have to worry about suddenly kissing her or about her getting harmed by the Inugami or by the Sakurazukamori.
His internal monologue was interrupted by Mai sliding into the passenger seat and closing the car door.
"We shouldn't have to wait much longer for the traffic to start moving," she informed him and lapsed once more into silence.
Oliver Davis was a man who always appreciated silence than being forced to listen to idle chatter. He had spent enough time in various laboratories and offices to know what he preferred working by himself as opposed to working with a larger group of people. However he found himself wanting Mai to talk, even if it was idle chatter.
"Mai, you can talk if you want to," he said eventually.
"I'm fine with not talking, Inspector Shibuya," she answered after giving him a puzzled look.
"Are you ill? You can take a few days off if you like," Naru suggested awkwardly.
Mai let out a bark of laughter. "Taking a few days off would mean missing the heist on Friday, I never thought I would hear that from the head of the task force. I'm not ill by the way."
He turned towards her. "Mai, your tea today has been frankly awful, your eyes look terrible and you are not bouncing around and talking for Japan like you normally do- you must be ill."
She smiled softly at him. "Thank you for the concern, I'm not ill... It's just like this every year on this day."
Ironically when he returned back to the task force office he found out why from Lin. Whilst he had been out Houshou Takigawa and Ayako Matsuzaki had stopped by to see Mai and Lin had managed to get it out of them and information about Yasuhara.
"Her father died when she was seven and her mother died when she was 15. Both died on the exact same day, eight years apart," Lin informed him.
Naru was unconcerned about the conversation being overheard as Mai and been dragged off by a tearful monk and priestess.
"Was she taken in by relations?"
"She had no other relatives."
This reminded the narcissist of his own childhood spent in an orphanage before being adopted by Martin and Luella Davis. If he hadn't had Gene as a companion he knew he wouldn't have been able to cope with the loneliness.
"Did she get taken to an orphanage?" he asked quietly.
Lin shook his head understandingly. "No. She lived with one of her teachers until she was able to support herself. Takigawa and Matsuzaki came on the scene much later, during high school."
Naru stared out at the sky thoughtfully. If he had been in Mai's position, would he have been able to endure living by himself and always working to pay the bills? He gave his had an almost imperceptible shake. The heist was more important than Mai's childhood, Gene was more important than Mai. He needed to clear his head.
"Lin. I'm testing it again tonight. I will be going for a longer distance this time. The forecast for wind speed is quite promising."
The orphan wiped her face of the latest batch of tears and knew that she needed to get away from the shrine in her apartment which was a permanent reminder of her parents' death.
That was how she found herself on the rooftop of her apartment block. The cool night breeze cooled her hot face and she found herself calming down.
She turned at the sound of someone's shoes stepping on the edge of the rooftop behind her. Standing behind her was a figure dressed in black with a matching hat and mask and what looked like some sort of hang glider on his back. As she stared he reached into his pocket and clicked something and the hang glider turned back into his cape.
"Kuro Kaitou...?" she whispered disbelievingly and squinted to make sure as there seemed to be something different about him. The hang glider was most likely to be the factor.
She received a scowl for her troubles, reminding her of someone that she knew, as did the black clothes and hair. His demeanour seemed to be more like the narcissist than the charming Phantom Thief that she had met before and kissed...
"Mai Taniyama... what are you doing here?" he asked with a note of surprise in his voice as he hadn't been expecting to see her.
"I live here," she said pointedly. "I could ask the same of you."
A short silence passed before he spoke again with a different tone to before.
"Have you been crying?"
"Just a little. Have you been flying?" she replied, recalling the hang glider.
"Just a little," he answered with a smile.
There was a pause before he spoke again.
"Would you like to come with me?" the thief offered unexpectedly.
Mai stared at him disbelievingly. "Are you letting me into one of your secrets?"
"A small one."
"I will take you up on your offer," she answered without even stopping to consider questions that were rather vital such as, will your hang glider hold two people?
Kuro Kaitou walked over to her and she squinted to try to get a closer look at his face.
"Taniyama-san, I'm doing you a favour, as a favour to me, stop trying to work out who I am."
Mai pouted. "I am part of the task force that is supposed to capture you..."
"Stand on the edge," he instructed as if she hadn't spoken.
The Police officer climbed into the ledge and avoided looking down at the city below. She did not have a fear of heights, but she would certainly die if she fell which was fearful. She nearly lost her footing when a pair of black clad arms wrapped around her midriff.
"W-What are you doing!?" she yelped.
"How else do you think this is going to work?" he asked sounding amused at her expense. "I need to keep a good grip on you. Step off on the count of three."
Mai took a deep breath.
"Three, two, one, zero."
At zero she stepped off the building pulling the phantom thief with her and they fell through the air together as one. For a few seconds they were spiralling rapidly downwards before Kuro Kaitou activated his hang glider, temporarily freezing them in mid air until the wind pushed them forwards.
Mai let the fact that she was being held in the arms of a criminal that she was supposed to be catching, go and enjoyed the sensation of flying through the bright lights of Tokyo. There were close moments involving skyscrapers and bridges, but the euphoria of flying with the wind counteracted that as did the unexpectedly strong and secure arms holding her.
All too soon it was over and she was dropped off back onto the rooftop of her apartment block, having completely forgotten the reason why she had been there in the first place.
"Do you still feel like crying?" he asked her softly as he released her from his arms.
"Not anymore. Thank you. I might arrest you next time I see you though," she grinned.
"I would expect nothing else. Good night, Taniyama-san," he said and was about to step back onto the ledge again to launch himself off into the night when he found himself being pulled back into a hug.
"Damn," cursed the phantom thief on his way home.
It was highly fortunate that he had packed one of his new smoke bombs, this one in particular containing a knockout drug. If he hadn't who knew what would have happened? He was lucky that she had only hugged him and hadn't kissed him instead.
How was he supposed to have known that where he stopped for a rest would be where Mai lived? There was probably a name for that kind of thing.
The thief brought his mind back to the present, giving himself enough time to steer around another block of apartments. Tokyo was not the best city for a hang glider or for his mental health. Neither was a certain female member of the task force.
Happy New Year!
