Chapter 38------Trouble
'What an idiot he is…Doesn't he know that my Grandfather is still alive? Doesn't he care if people recognise him? What a stupid STUPID thing to do! How can he—'
"Mai!"
'What if they get caught by him? What if the archaeologists get them to translate the inscriptions? It'll expose everything!'
"Takuya Mai!"
"H-Hai!" The girl shot up from her chair, earning snickers from the rest of her classmates.
"Stop daydreaming and pay attention!" The teacher shouted and the girl guiltily hung her head. "What's the answer for question 6?"
Mai looked frantic, 'Damn! Which page are we on?' "Uhh…umm…" She turned to the person beside her for an answer. Everyone had their eyes on her and she could see the impatient look Mr Tojo was wearing. Just then, she caught sight of Yuta mouthing the answer to her. "135 degrees?"
Mr Tojo's lips pursed, obviously unhappy with missing the chance to discipline a student. "Correct…but I better not catch you building castles in the sky during my lesson again, Miss Takuya."
"Hai…" The girl sat back down and fumbled with her pencil box, anything to distract her from her classmates' stares…
"Hey, umm thanks for just now." Mai managed to catch up with Yuta as they were leaving the Geography homeroom.
The boy nodded, "Don't mind him, he likes picking on the new students. Wants to test them you see."
"Ohh. Ja ittekimasu. (In that case, I'll be off then.)" Mai gave a slight bow and made her way back to class.
Lunch was served in class. It was one of the things Mai enjoyed about the Japanese culture. The school had no cafeteria so the food was brought up to class by the lunch ladies. The students got to rearrange their tables so they could eat with their friends. Everyone lined up for their meals and everyone cleared their own trays, it taught the students how to be independent and orderly.
Mai's meal consisted of bread and jam, soup with a chunk of mackerel in it, mixed vegetables, a bowl of rice and a small carton of strawberry milk. It wasn't her choice; everyone got the same thing; unless you had packed a bento (Japanese lunch box) to school. She placed her tray on the table next to Kenny, "Whatcha Mom pack today Kenny?"
"Same old ramen again…-lifts noodles with his chopsticks and plops it into the box-" The poor boy looked bored with his food as he picked away at the thick chewy noodles.
"Well, your parents do run a Ramen stall." Tyson pointed out as he buttered his bread.
"But eating ramen 365 days a year? Gimme a break…"
"There there, Kenny." Mai patted the boy's back, "Here, you can have my fish." She transferred the bowl of soup from her tray to the chief's. Hilary suggested giving the ramen to someone else so that he could eat the school food but the bespectacled boy declined.
"By the way, I heard Yuta saved your butt from one of Mr Tojo's discipline lectures." This remark caught everyone's attention in the table and they looked at the girl intently.
"How'd you know?"
"Word gets out fast. Yuta is after all a popular guy." Hilary replied in an oh-so-obvious tone.
"Well so what? He was just helping me. There's nothing wrong with helping someone." Mai suddenly became very interested in spreading grape jam on her bread— too much grape jam.
"But don't you think he's being too nice to you? Ah forget it; just remember you still have Riya."
Mai placed her chopsticks forcefully on her tray, "Are you saying I'm cheating on Riya?" She threw the cold question at Hilary.
"N-No, but just be –"
"I'm not, okay?" Mai replied harshly. 'How could she accuse me of cheating on Riya? I'd never do that!'
"Whoa, cool it." Kenny spoke up, "Hilary didn't mean it."
"Yeah, I didn't know you'd – sorry…" Mai gave her a shrug and the brunette glumly went back to eating her food…
-Back home-
Mai headed straight to her room (the dojo) and closed the sliding door with a loud –THAWCK-.
"What happened?"
"PMS…"
Just then the door slid open, "I HEARD THAT, TYSON!" and slammed shut. The boys just stood there looking as if a lion had roared in their faces.
"I pity the paper shoji screen…"Max sighed and the group entered the house…
-Mai's room-
The girl pulled out her notebook and tore out a piece of lined-paper. She dug her hands into her bag and pulled out her pencil box, hurriedly zipping it open and extracting her purple mechanical pencil from the cluster of pens, rulers and other stationery. Mai placed a hard book under the paper and began scribbling:
Dear Riya,
What have you done? What am I doing? Why? I don't' even know what the hell I'm writing about…
I want you here now, to complain to you, to tell you everything; so that you can comfort me. And today Hilary says I might cheat on you…Why? Why aren't you here to back me up? Why aren't you here to make sure I won't go astray? Why aren't you here when I need you to listen?
Oh yeah, you're too busy telling the whole world who we are!
What are you thinking? If he knows there are Zeelans still alive he'll kill you, and Copellia, and Mit-chan and Drex and then he'll come after me! And I'd lose all of you…again...and this time none of you will ever come back…ever.
I know I sound selfish but I don't know what I'm doing…I just need someone to blame everything on and so I blame it on you…even though I know it's not entirely your fault. I'll always forgive you remember?
I want one of those carrier pigeons. Then I could send all of my letters to you and you'd know how much I miss you. But I'm starting to wonder, how long can I last? There's no one here I can REALLY talk to and sometimes…I talk to myself, tell myself about my day, about my feelings… I know it's silly but Tyson and the rest don't really look like they'd understand or want to talk about it… I want one of those tape recorder devices so I don't have to spend time penning these things down. I could just talk to myself and record it then I'd play it back and think: What an idiot she is thinking about this kinda stuff.
Levian: You're really losing it, you know.
'How do you know? You can't read.' Mai put the pencil down and laid on her futon, taking in the shadows on the ceiling created by the afternoon sun.
Levian: You're reading everything inside your head.
'What now? You're gonna tell me how to live my life again?'
Levian: Come to think of it, I have been telling you how to live your life.
The girl rolled on her side, 'I know… What would I do without you huh? It's just that… I don't know if …how do I say this?'
Levian: I'm listening.
'I'm not hopeless without Riya or anything but… sometimes I just want him here. I'm afraid that I might…betray him…but I hope I don't! Guess that's where self-discipline comes in doesn't it?'
Levian: Hmmm, can I ask you a question?
'Shoot.'
Levian: If you had to choose between saving the world and your friend, which would you choose?
'The world…'
Levian: Why?
'I'd love to save my friend, demo (but)… what's one sacrifice compared to the world? I'd be selfish if I didn't…'
Levian: And who would judge you that way?
'Everyone… Everyone wants it their way. If something goes against their wishes, they blame that something. Even though there are kind people in this world, if they could have things their way, they would. Humans are like that, we're selfish creatures…'
Levian: Isn't that what you're doing now? Blaming Riya when the choice is actually up to you?
'I know it's up to me but one end will suffer! Gah! I don't know…let's just drop it. When it comes, it comes and if I can do anything about it, I will but if I can't, then so be it.'
Mai sat up and read through her letter. What was she thinking when she wrote this? All this gibberish about carrier pigeons and tape recorders? Nonetheless, she still folded it and slid it under the tatami mat when she thought no one was watching.
But oh! Someone was watching her and for many days now. The green-haired boy leaped out of the bonsai tree and landed gracefully on his feet before hurrying away to report to his leader…
-Somewhere in an empty warehouse-
"Found anything yet?"
Miriam shook her head and tucked away the pendant, "We need more clues. The pendant isn't gonna show us anything unless where close by."
Ozuma fell to the floor, with legs crossed and one fist propping up his head. "If that doesn't work…then we'll just have to keep on following her till she leads us to the jewels."
"Joseph's back." Dunga pointed to the person who had slid through the doors.
"Any luck, Sis?" The green-haired boy made himself comfortable on some crates while he received Miriam's reply.
"So? Anything new today?"
Joseph lay on his back, repeatedly tossing his blade up in the air and catching it with his right hand, "Nah, it's school in school out. But I overheard Tyson say they were going for the American tournament. Maybe we'll find something there. The jewels are scattered to the four corners of the Earth, no?"
Ozuma let out a groan, "The longer we wait, the higher the chances that guy Riya's already found the jewels... Dammit! We should've followed him!"
"Let's hope he hasn't. Hey Miriam! It's your shift tonight." Dunga reminded.
"I'm goin' I'm goin'! Sheesh…" The girl adjusted her ponytail before heading out the door…
-Back to Granger residence-
"Mai! Stop messaging and throw out the trash!"
"Okay!" Mai didn't bother to look up; she quickly typed her message and pressed the 'send' button. She slipped the mobile phone into her pocket and headed into the kitchen…
"Haaaah, this is so gross." She held the plastic bag by the tip of her fingers and dumped it into the bin. Just then, she heard a familiar sound. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone:
Message received:
Don't forget my notes. I'll see you at the stadium!
-Hilary
The girl was just about to reply when something caught her attention, "!" She turned to look but the next second, an overwhelming sense of pain blasted through her neck. The girl fell into the man's arms and instantaneously, a car pulled up behind him and Mai was dragged into the vehicle which sped off into the night……
"Mai!" Rei ran out to check what was taking the girl so long. He passed the gate, "Mai?" then he noticed the phone lying on the floor and his heart started to race, 'Oh shit!' He picked the phone up and read through the message. 'But she never—' Then something horrible struck him and he rushed into the house, "GUYS! SHE'S GONE!"
"Nani?"
"MAI'S GONE!" Rei stuck the phone out at them. It took the rest a second to register what he was saying before their eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.
'Oh no!'
Sorry for the slow update. Had a writer's block but from here on, I know what's gonna happen so I'll be able to write faster. Review all right? Thx!