My apologies for the long wait. More than once, I found myself with a brilliant idea only to lose it as quickly as it came. In addition, the advent of Dragon Age Origins, Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and my shiny new graphics card has left me distracted for many weeks. Still, you are welcome to message me about befriending my steam account. Then all of you would see how much I absolutely suck at computer games despite my dedication.
You have an addiction ch. 15
The air in the room felt heavy for the rest of the evening. I didn't care to remember what we talked about afterwards. Only the awkward aura of dissatisfaction and guilt weighed over my head. I couldn't wait to leave that home, and swore never to go back.
Mai barely managed to keep up a pleasant façade for Asahara's mother. I'm sure the woman suspected something was off, but didn't know us well enough to be sure. Her daughter, however, immediately picked up the change in mood.
The next day was generally displeasing. My date was ruined, so I was determined to make up for it. However, when I showed up looking for Mai, she was talking to someone else.
I never thought of myself as a possessive person. It wasn't as if I wanted to keep Mai to myself and protect her from the rest of the world. I trusted her, probably more than I would have Mama. However, the presence of Tate Yuuichi irked me to no end. He wasn't a threat. He had his chance and let it go willingly. As far as I knew, neither felt any need to rekindle their former relationship.
Still, I didn't like that he was in there talking to her. Maybe it was their history together, or the high probability that Mai did really prefer men. I felt threatened.
I kept telling myself that Mai was mine, and that I didn't need to worry. Yet the more I thought about it, the angrier I felt. Suddenly, Tate became an unacceptable existence in my mind.
I strode into her room and plopped myself next to her. He simply looked surprised at my presence, and she glared at me with an annoyed face. I knew I had interrupted something and didn't care if it was particularly important. If they were in that room together, I had to be in the room with them.
Both of them got over their initial surprise and continued while awkwardly ignoring my presence.
"Anyway, I was hoping to find low activity job for the next few months."
"I see, then you-" Tate stared at me for a second. "You want me to arrange a meeting with Takeda-san?"
"Yes, I was hoping he may have some openings in secretarial positions."
I kept silent, mostly because I would embarrass myself further by acting how I felt. "Sure," he said. "I'll have him call you." Biting his lip, he asked, "You still use the same number?"
"Yes." She smiled and hugged him before he left.
As soon as he was gone, she turned to me and said, "That was rude Nao."
I feigned ignorance. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Don't be an ass." She scolded.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what got into me." I really did feel slightly guilty; it wasn't as if he went out of his way to provoke me. "It just bothers me when he's near you." More importantly, it bothered me that their history would take her away.
Her expression softened. She leaned towards me and kissed me on the forehead. What was I, five? "I didn't know you could be so cute."
"I'm not cute." Sexy maybe, seductive and definitely deadly, but I was not cute.
--
The school day is far too long. Though I was seriously contemplating repeating a year, the idea of staying in the dull space of Fuuka Gakuen spurred me to graduate on time. Sure, it meant extra hours in the library to make up absent days, but graduating would free up the weekday for a paying job. Mai seemed happy that I decided to put extra time into my education. There wasn't a chance in hell that I would get into any college, but she still seemed to like the idea. I don't know, maybe she had a few long-term plans that I wasn't aware of.
The funniest thing happened one day after my usual make-up study session in the library. A love letter was stuffed into my shoe locker along with a box of chocolates. For a moment, I feared Asahara had restarted her pursuit; only see a boy's name signed at the bottom. I quickly glanced over the small note conveying this stranger's feelings and laughed at its absurdity. In less than a minute, the letter was in the trashcan and the candy in my hand. It was expensive. Why waste it?
Unfortunately, eating the chocolate seemed to backfire on me. The next day, a lanky person with large, thick-rimmed glasses came up to me and asked, "Did you enjoy the chocolates Yuuki-san?" It had to be Sawatori, the writer of the love note.
He was definitely strange. In his left hand was a manga. A pen was clipped to his shirt collar. If I had money to spare, I would wager that he had many cartoon posters on his walls. Overall, he seemed to fit the stereotypical otaku.
Inwardly, I groaned. "I'm not interested, go away."
He didn't, which was very annoying. Instead, the jerk sat down across from me and opened his mouth. "You're kind of famous at school," he sputtered. "Everyone says you're a mean slut who likes to use men."
"Then fuck off asshole; you don't have anything I want." For all I cared, they could have said I was a space alien with a fetish for cucumbers.
"Look, I know you're not like that." Great, he was an idealist. "I know you go around taking out perverts. It's great, and you look after that girl too."
"You've been watching me?" I narrowed my eyes. This person was dangerous.
Shocked, Sawatori raised his hand in denial. "Oh no," he said, "not at all! That's what a stalker would do." Noticing my increasingly angry stare, he nervously grabbed at his shirt collar and cleared his throat. "I-" he said, averting his eyes. "Umm," he stuttered again, "I hired a private investigator."
"That's still stalking," I growled at him. More importantly, Natsuki ratted me out for money. I was going to kill her. "Which P.I. did you hire?" A sick smile crossed my face; he gulped.
"Umm, a Higa-san I think, I don't know his given name." I let go a breath I didn't even know I was holding.
On the plus side, Natsuki didn't screw me, but now I had to talk to this Higa character, which was going to be unpleasant. He wasn't a good P.I. if he didn't know about my part time job, my girlfriend and my hatred for men.
"I see," I said. "Stop stalking me, and get lost." I went back to studying for my upcoming exam, and did my best to block out anything outside my personal space.
He mumbled something before he left. I didn't really catch it, so replied, "Yeah whatever." I brushed him off. "Just don't bother me."
Soon enough, the sky darkened, and I had to work. Natsuki needed my report on a woman who liked to pick pockets at bars. The local shop owners across town asked Natsuki to find the culprit. It was a simple job. They only needed some pictures of the person in action. I scouted around town for some easy marks and followed them into bars. A sexy woman showed up, flirted and robbed them blind.
I gave her the memory disk with the photos. She gave me forty thousand in cash. "Kind of high for a one night job, isn't it?" I looked at the money. No way was I giving it back, but my curiosity could be satisfied without losing it.
"I know, but they needed this job done. The police weren't going to help. There was no reason for me to give them a low price." She grinned.
My usual payments was about half. One could say it was commission based. This high pay off was a welcome change from the usual four digit wages. "Fair enough," I replied. "Oh yeah, you should watch out." I watched her quirk an eyebrow as if asking me to explain. "Apparently there's another P.I. in town called Higa."
She frowned. "I know about him."A hint of sadness laced her voice. She sighed and said, "Used to be a cop, till they accused him of corruption."
I looked at her skeptically. "So he's dirty?"
Natsuki shook her head. "No," she stated. For some reason, she sounded sure of it.
I wanted to ask her for more details, but the look on her face told me that it was something she did not want to discuss, so I left it alone. "Anyway, do you know where his office is?" I asked.
"Yeah," she confirmed, "why?"
"I need to talk to him."
Her eyes scanned my face. Skeptically, she paused and tried to peer into my brain for a reason. It didn't work, but she relented anyway and wrote down an address. "Here," she said, handing me the paper. "Don't do anything stupid."
"Right," I said before walking out the door.
Asahara was outside the office doing secretarial things. Natsuki offered her a job once I started spending quality time with my textbooks. She had nothing better to do, so seized the opportunity to learn from a licensed professional.
"Hey, I'm off to a job, wanna come?" I offered the girl. She was much less annoying now, and I needed someone to carry some equipment.
Immediately the girl perked up. "Of course!" she shouted excitedly.
We strolled around the downtown park with a small wagon in tow. If everything went well, a small puppy would be on the wagon by ten. Then again, animals were difficult to predict, and more than once, I completely lost a pet or mixed it up with another one. Those wasted hours of searching always got on my nerves.
Out of boredom, I decided to chat. "Why are you working with us anyway? It's not like you have to be a P.I."
My protégé shrugged. "It's not like I have anything else to look forward to," she said. "I'm not rich or smart."
"So what then, you're joining the rebellious high school girls club?"
She laughed at my joke. "Maybe," she said.
I suspended our search. "Look, Kuga and I didn't come to this point by choice." Looking at her seriously, I took a deep breath. "Some horrible things happened, and we ended up this way. If you have a chance, go for it."
She looked shocked. Shadows of tears appeared in her eyes. "Thanks senpai, but I really do enjoy being with you and Kuga-san – Mai san too!" A moment of silence passed. "But I promise to 'go for it' if anything appears."
That's what I wanted to hear. Hey, I was only seventeen. It wasn't too late for me either. The future was full of possibilities, though at this point, everything would be more difficult.
Mai called me at nine-o-clock. It pained me that I couldn't see her on weekdays for now. More than ever, I wished she could move back into the dorm room.
She asked me about my day. I told her a few details, even the bit about Sawatori. She found it sad that I could mock him so easily.
"Feelings are fragile," she told me, and chastised me for eating his gift fully knowing that I would reject him.
"I didn't eat it all." I said. "I saved half it for you." My words caused a sigh on the other end. Chuckling, I told her, "It's fine. I told him I wasn't interested right away." Never did I think that he believed differently.
We said our goodbyes soon afterward. Mai made sure that I wouldn't lead on the poor man. I was a little confused. The whole time there was a hint of uncertainty in her voice. It couldn't be that she believed I was interested in him. The guy was a freak, and his interest in me was probably a very unusual coincidence.
Soon enough it was ten-o-clock. The night turned out to be a bust. Fucking dog wasn't in the park. Asahara left as soon as we dropped the equipment off at the office. There was nothing else to do. The mutt was off somewhere doing God knows what, and I didn't really feel like working on another job. I had homework anyway.
However, before anything could be done, I had to go check out Higa's office. If I was going to talk to him, I had to know what he was like. What was this former good cop doing for a living? Spying on high school girls seemed to be a huge step down from being a respected detective.
His office was dark, and the lock was easy to pick. There was no one there, as expected. The guy was organized. The files on his desk were stacked neatly in one place. His pens lay parallel to each other next to a notebook pad, which was centered on the desk. There were no pictures though. Absolutely nothing personal was placed in the room. Everything seemed to be work related and in alphabetical order.
Quickly I picked up some files from his desk. There were a few about missing pets, people, and property. Other files requested information about specific people or areas. I found my file in the filing cabinet labeled, "completed". Apparently, he followed me one weekday for about two hours after I left the school, and had a police report from my hime days. No wonder there was so little information. It was good news; I didn't have to talk to him after all.
Carefully, I placed everything back to their original state. He didn't ever need to know I was here. A flashlight glowed through the office front door. I was startled, and accidentally knocked over the files on the desk. Damn, and I spent so much time getting them into that pile.
The light paused outside the door. Quickly someone unlocked the door and stepped through. "Who's there?" asked the security guard. He sounded a little frightened.
My heart pounded like no tomorrow. I could probably take out the stupid rent-a-cop easily without being recognized, but didn't want to get in a scuffle if it wasn't necessary. The beam roamed through waiting room as I heard the man's footsteps echo off the walls. They sounded unusually heavy.
After a minute, and a quick scan of the area, he left the office. "Must be my imagination," he muttered before locking the door again.
I let out a sigh of relief. Narrow escapes were bad for my health. Of course, not escaping at all was worse. Thinking about it, I definitely preferred the lesser hazard.
Slowly, I started reorganizing the new mess. One by one, I looked through the file tabs to find the right place for each file. Fucking alphabet, organization sucked.
Hello, what was this?
One of the files had Kuga's picture. What did he want with the mutt? "Aika?" was written on the back. I was concerned. Bad news Kuga, someone has been looking into you. I had to find out which folder the picture was stored. God damn it, this was going to be a long night. It was strange that he didn't have info on me if he was looking into Kuga.
Three hours passed with no result. I finally decided to just take the picture and put everything back. Kuga could find out about it tomorrow. Yet a voice in the back of my mind kept telling me to keep silent. If I told the mutt, would she kill him? Did I need to tell her? She knew how to take care of herself without my help. I knew I owed her, but it didn't mean I had to give her someone for target practice. Why was this weighing on my conscience at all? I didn't know Higa, and Kuga was my friend. I knew her. She wouldn't do anything unless she was forced.
I walked home completely exhausted. Homework had to wait another day. It wouldn't affect my grade too badly anyway. Passing was enough. I wanted to call Mai before I slept, but didn't want to wake her. She was usually asleep at this hour. I hoped she was doing well at her new workplace. Apparently, Masashi-kun's father was a respectable salary man in a management position. It was great that she could find work again, but had to wake up early and go home late. Our schedules made dating on weekdays impossible.
I wanted to hear her voice before sleeping. Guess I had to settle for Mikoto's strange form of breathing.
--
The next day was like the last. Classes were boring. People chatted on about meaningless things, and most of them avoided talking to me out of fear. Well, I preferred that they leave me alone. Teenagers were a pain in the ass.
I went to the library to finish whatever work I had left over. If everything went according to plan, then I'd be out of that hellhole forever by the end of next week. Much to my chagrin, Sawatori came back for a visit.
"I'm glad you came back Yuuki-san." He nervously smiled and sat down next to me. Did it look like I left an open invitation? "If you want I can help you with your English."
"No, go away."
"Ah, well then, umm" he said. The stupid, nervous wreck took out two tickets from his pocket. "I just happen to have these, and I was wondering if you would like to go?"
I looked at the tickets. Mai loved karaoke; it wouldn't be such a bad idea to take her. We have never gone together. "That's a great idea," I muttered to myself.
"So you will go?" he asked.
I honestly felt sorry for him at this point. "Not with you."
He slumped his head in disappointment, but quickly perked up again. "I know, why don't you invite your friends, and I can invite mine! We can all have fun together. It'll be my treat." He continued to ramble for some time, so I tuned him out.
When the white noise died out I responded, "Not interested."
He became sad, and even looked dejected. "Yuuki-san, I really want us to be friends."
I burst out laughing. "Friends? What in God's name for?" I shouted. Everyone in the room was staring at us now. Whispers began to echo off the walls.
Yet he seemed resolute about his statement. "Because I admire you," he said bluntly. "You do what you want, and you don't care what anyone thinks. You're a good person, but don't show it. Everyone here is satisfied with the rumors, but I want to know you for real!"
The room fell silent. I was shocked. Damn it, he was genuinely nice. I didn't know how to deal with good people, and I knew getting rid of him would be hard. "Look, I will never be interested in you. Just give up."
"It's alright Yuuki-san. I still want to be friends." Strange thoughts must be crossing his mind. I clearly rejected him, and there was no way he was only interested in friendship. What did he want from me?
"I already have a lover." Take that and go away.
"Oh really?" He seemed disappointed, yet he put on a brave face. "You can bring him along."
I wasn't quite sure what he was planning, but free tickets to a karaoke bar didn't see all that bad. The boy genuinely wanted to know me, and didn't care that I already had Mai. Maybe he really just wanted to hang out with someone like me. It was strange, but I wasn't one to judge others on weird predilections.
"She does love karaoke." I muttered to myself. Mai was always bothering me to make more friends. Maybe this won't be such a bad idea. Asahara would probably want to come. Mikoto, and Natsuki would join if they could spare the time. The old Hime gang tended to enjoy Kareoke bars, probably because of the drinks.
"Is that a yes?" Sawatori nervously twisted the bottom of his uniform jacket.
"Uhh, sure," I confirmed. What harm could it do? Mai would at least stop nagging me about being nice to people. "Is it okay if I bring a few friends too? We don't get to hang out often." Accepting his offer counted as a nice thing, right?
"Yes, that's great!" he nearly announced to the room.
--
The incident began a series of rumors around the school. I didn't usually pay attention to their useless chattering, but sometimes I overheard things. Most of the time, it wasn't particularly important. "Did you know Yuuki-san likes to hang out by that street where prostitutes stay?" "I heard Yuuki-san is the daughter of a Yakuza boss." My personal favorite was, "Yuuki-san runs the meanest street gang in all of Tokyo."
However, the latest ones were most annoying. "Sawatori-kun asked Yuuki-san out on a date. She agreed only because he's rich." Stupid assholes couldn't even get their facts straight. I didn't agree to a date. Fucking students were retarded. Also, I had no idea he came from money, not that it mattered.
I kicked a nearby light pole on my way to work. Today, I had the dreaded duty to tell Natsuki exactly what I found inside Higa's office. She was definitely going to be unhappy. Hell, I was already pissed. Screw the old bastard. At this point, I felt like killing something, or someone, didn't matter if it was the damned former cop.
Natsuki shouted at me when I slammed the door as I entered the office. It wasn't my fault the doors in the building sucked.
I threw the picture at her. "Higa's noticed something he shouldn't have."
Asahara chose that very moment to walk in with a cup of coffee. She glanced at the back of picture. "Who's Aika?"
Natsuki and I froze at her innocent question. Should we tell her? She seemed trustworthy enough; then again, she was an innocent bystander. It'd be better if we left her out of the loop.
"Some woman who went missing," I lied.
Natsuki glared at me. What the hell? I just saved her ass.
"Oh? Did you find her?" God damn it, just drop off the coffee and leave.
"Yeah," I said, and avoided eye contact. "She ran away to America with a lover."
"That's really silly." She laughed.
"You'd be surprised what people would do for love." I chuckled, but felt a pain in my heart when my thoughts turned to Mai. My words rung truer than I liked.
Natsuki put on a grim frown and had a distant look in her eye. Guess they resonated with her too.
As soon as the girl was out of the office, we continued our conversation. "So, do you know who hired him to find Aika?"
My midnight-haired friend sighed. "It's probably not a case."
I raised my eyebrow in curiosity. "Right, then he's out to get you himself?"
"I know who framed him for the corruption charges." She got up and poured herself a stiff drink.
Just great, I was now stuck in some lame detective movie, where the former cop wants revenge, and I was siding with the guilt-ridden assassin. Shoot me now. "So, what are you going to do?"
"What else can I do?" She gulped down the strong liquor in one mouthful as if it was foul tasting medication. Scowling she continued, "Tell him what I know."
I frowned. "That seems risky."
"Not at all," she said, "I'll have nothing to tell him. Just because I know a few things doesn't mean I know everything." She shrugged, suggesting that what she knew and what was true were two completely different things. "My clients know to give me only what's necessary. They say ignorance is bliss."
"I thought you said you knew who framed him."
She poured another drink. "Yes, but that doesn't stop me from conveniently forgetting the most important details." A bitter smile creased her youthful face. Five years ago, she would have reluctantly helped Higa, but now - it was hard to see how far she'd fallen from grace. Then again, did any of us make it out of the Carnival with our humanity intact?
"You are evil. You know that?" I said jokingly, hoping to draw her out of this depressive mood.
"Which is why we get along so well." A relaxed grin replaced her previous expression.
--
End Notes - Just so you are aware, the editing is underway, but has yet to be posted. Don't forget to click that shiny review button down there.
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