A/N: I once again apologies for the extreme tardiness of this chapter. I'd say more, but my time online is limited. Currently, I'm in Beijing, and have limited internet access on weekends. Edited chapters for 1-5 are up. Reviews would be appreciated. For more info, please visit my bio. Review replies may be late due to internet access issues. I will do my best.
I left Natsuki's office with a smile. The woman was sly; I had to give her that. With our past differences, it was amazing how we ended up as friends. For once, everything was falling into place.
Before I left, I managed to obtain her pledge to attend the supposed Karaoke party. It helped that Midori, as far as we knew, was not in Japan. Natsuki needed the break anyway. All the depressing assignments she had for her side business was eating away at her soul. Any reprieve would help out. At least the promise of the slightest bit of normalcy was nice.
Asahara was invited as well. I didn't see the harm in bringing her along. Plus, Natsuki and I would keep her out of too much trouble. Hopefully the social gathering would do well to show her what ordinary high school life was supposed to be like. She would be entering that new stage of her life soon enough and I would be leaving.
Soon enough, the prearranged karaoke night came. I was a little excited to spend just a little more time with Mai as well as show her off to a group of people. I mean, the idea of telling everyone that she was mine was more than a little hot.
Mai was walking energetically tonight. Recovery went well. She was lucky. I was lucky. The bastard was an amazing shot. The bullet went straight through without hitting any organs. Of course, he didn't intentionally do it, but an excellent result under the circumstances.
I held her hand tightly in mine as we walked into the booth. Right off the bat, I saw a group of teenage boys huddling around a magazine. Sighing, I snatched away the object, effectively announcing my presence.
"What's this?" I took a good luck at the opened page, half expecting porn. The first thing that caught my attention was very a graphical depiction of a sound effect. The next panel showed some cartoon character falling in a very improbable position. "Ah," I blandly read aloud, "the culprit must be..." Okay, so that was why they crowded around the magazine like a bunch of maniacs.
Sawatori hastily snatched the object away. In fact, he looked quite red, either from excitement or from embarrassment. Though, I couldn't imagine why he was embarrassed. It wasn't as if they were caught reading porn by a bunch of girls, though now that I thought about it. Was it more embarrassing to be caught with porn or manga?
Recomposing himself, he spoke. "Well," he said, and fidgeted a little. "Good evening Yuuki-san." He politely bowed towards us, while not so subtly passing the magazine to one of his friends behind his back.
"Okay?" I said, then turned to the others. "I'm Yuuki." I gestured to Mai, while tightly holding her hand. "This is Tokiha Mai. She's mine you got that?" I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her closer to make my point. Then pointing behind me, I said, "Oh, and everyone else." There was a strange look on Sawatori's face that I couldn't quite place. It wasn't malice or anything, so I shrugged it off. The boys behind him giggled at my announcement. I glared at them, silently threatening them to keep laughing. They shut up quite fast.
"Nao," Mai lightly chastised, before she properly introduced everyone else. It ended quickly. What was the point in rambling on and on about names? It wasn't as if we wanted to be friends. Actually, now that I thought about it, there really wasn't any reason for me to come here, not with these guys at least. It didn't really matter now. We were here, and might as well enjoy the evening to the best of our ability.
Mai eagerly volunteered to go first. She tried to get me to go with her. I politely refused and pushed her into the spotlight. This was her favorite time to shine. Plus, I really wanted to watch her sing. Maybe we could do a duet a little later in the night.
She chose a catchy pop song that was popular a couple of years ago. Everyone began clapping along as they were caught up in the moment. I smiled and joined in. Hell, if Natsuki could happily cheer away for Mai, I was going to do better. Soon enough, Mai managed to drag me up with her to dance with her on the mini-stage. It was kind of embarrassing, but fun.
After a couple of minutes, her turn was over. Some guy volunteered to go next. He chose some random song that I didn't really hear. All of my attention was on the orange-haired girl panting in the seat next to mine. I grabbed her hand and asked, "You have fun?"
"Yeah," she replied, exhaling a quickened breath. "I can't remember the last time I did karaoke. Though," she paused. Her index finger rose up and tapped her chin in an expression of thought. An amused, but slightly cruel smile appeared on her face as she slowly turned towards Natsuki's direction.
I smirked knowing what she was thinking. The poor private eye would never escape tonight. Even if I had to go through hell too, it'd be worth it to see the proud and easily embarrassed Natsuki Kuga taken down a few notches. Well, it'd be entertaining at least.
A silent look of agreement passed between my girlfriend and me. "Kuga, how about we make this more interesting?"
She turned to me with a curious expression on her face. "Oh?" She tentatively asked.
I turned to Mai, slightly curious of her plan. "Whoever gets the most votes gets to choose the loser's song," she said.
That sounded like fun. The boys in the room immediately perked up at the thought. I turned to them. "What do you think guys?"
The nerdy guys cheered. Akane and Kazuya looked at each other before tentatively agreeing. Ah right, Mai invited them, something about old friends. Since I was never close to that particular couple, I didn't care.
Asahara nervously poked me and asked, "Are you sure that's wise?" A look of pity and a hint of fear were on her face.
"Yeah," I casually replied. "It'll be fun," I said with a little less enthusiasm. Thinking about it some more, maybe it wasn't the greatest idea.
"Not a chance." She firmly crossed her arms and shook her head. "I can't win against Mai."
"No worries, you're going against Nao." My girlfriend responded.
I panicked. "Wait, what?" I turned to her in shock and disappointment. "You're not doing it with me."
"C'mon Nao, it'll be more fair. You'll enjoy it." She tried to coax me.
A wave of doubt passed through me. Why did I have to humiliate myself alone? At least with Mai I could be more comfortable. She wasn't budging though.
Reluctantly I agreed to her plan. Mentally I cursed my foolishness. Had it been anyone else I would have left without a second thought, but this was Mai. She was my girlfriend. Lately though, it felt more like a one-sided crush than anything else.
I quickly brushed aside my doubts. Tonight we planned to have fun. Sitting up, I challenged Natsuki. "You up for some fun?"
She smirked at me. "Prepare to lose Yuuki."
I went first. Mai chose a love ballad that would suit my voice. I wasn't quite sure what it was about, or who sang it. It felt ridiculously mushy and unnecessarily long. I felt sick during the second round of the chorus, yet the moment Mai smiled at me, the feeling disappeared, and suddenly I was singing to her.
Afterward everyone seemed to enjoy it. At the final note, I grinned at Natsuki, challenging her to beat that. Her face noticeably paled a little at the performance.
Natsuki went up for her turn. Everyone started hooting and hollering suggestions, since she seemed so unsure. I noticed Asahara offered up some nice and very humiliating pop songs. Sawatori's friends mainly shouted out obscure things that were probably anime theme songs.
She ended up with something generic. Naturally, by the time her lyrics started she already had a red tint. By the time the song was over, her face could mimic a tomato. To be fair, she did take a healthy swig of beer before attempting to go on stage. With her pale skin, it wouldn't be surprising if it turned out she was among the few that developed the Asian glow when drinking.
Now that the first round was over, a vote was cast. She won. I cursed the world where her tomboyish qualities served as "moe points" as one of Sawatori's friends put it. Mai could only pat my back in consolation as I sucked up my pride and let the damned mutt chose my punishment.
As humiliated as I was, the night ended pretty well. We played a couple more rounds of the game, where the others participated as well. Thankfully, Kazuya lost the most, probably because he was the only male with our group. The other guys were simply left out most of the time, though I didn't think they cared all that much.
I walked Mai home. It was still disappointing that she did not return to live with me in the dorm, but Sister had offered to rent the room she was using for a low price. My dorm room was only built for two after all, and she couldn't freeload forever, or at least that's what Mai said.
It wasn't as if Mikoto and I really minded that she was there. I sure as hell preferred to be near her, but Mai was insistent. I must admit, it did give me the opportunity to concentrate on my school work. Now that I had finally caught up, we could actually go on more dates.
The next day at school was typical. More rumors spread around the school about Sawatori and me. While I didn't really care; it was annoying to see their looks of disgust and pity. Every time I passed by, I was tempted to show them just how interested I was in their opinion with my fist.
Since I finished catching up on school work, there was no need to spend that much time in the library now. Sure my class had upcoming college entrance exams, but it wasn't as if I could afford to go even if I miraculously got into one. Even Mai had accepted that my near future didn't include any further education. With luck, I could partner up with Natsuki if she could afford it.
The morning flew by in a blur. Before I knew it, lunch started. I took out a bread roll from my bag. It wasn't as if I had learned to cook over the past month, so Mikoto and I learned how to survive off premade food.
Sawatori walked into my classroom and waved to me like an idiot. He grabbed a spare chair nearby and sat across from me. I noticed that his food was nicely packed and cooked. A brief moment of jealously hit me as my stomach cried for a home cooked meal. Damn Sawatori and his proper bento.
He took out his chopsticks and began to rattle on about something arbitrary. He wanted to be friends, or at least that's what he told me. I let him do whatever, because I didn't care. At some point I successfully managed to tune him out to think about other things.
Natsuki wanted me to take on a few more jobs. For some reason there was an increase in cases about lost pets, and she wanted me to take care of them. I secretly suspected that she put in an ad in the newspaper, but of course the crazy P.I. vehemently denied my accusation. Asahara said something about customers spreading news about our success rate in finding things. Apparently, fifteen percent success was high. Oh well, if an idiot was that desperate to find a dog, I wasn't about to stop him from spending money.
I was skulking about the park where a few of my homeless acquaintances spotted the missing black poodle. Sure enough, it appeared next to a small water fountain in the middle of the park. I slowly walked towards it with a dog snack in my hand. It sniffed the air and looked at me with interest.
Catching dogs was tricky. I had to make sure that I wasn't bitten. Usually it wasn't that bad. Mikoto was kind enough to show me a trick on how to calm animals.
The dog took the bait, and snapped at the snack. I quickly managed to loop a leash onto its neck, then wrestled to get a muzzle on. Today was a success.
"Yo Yuuki-san," someone called out to me. I looked in the direction of the voice and recognized a couple of guys from my school. Uninterested, I blinked, and returned to my work.
One grabbed my arm before I could leave. "Don't ignore us bitch."
I stared at his hand, and then yanked my arm out of his grip. "What the fuck do you want?" They were street punks. I didn't know if I could handle both at once. I mean, I was good at fighting, but they weren't exactly inexperienced either.
"Word is that you got your hands into Sawatori's pockets."
It was obvious where this was going, and I wasn't the least bit interested. "It's a lie."
"Right," the bigger of the two said, "he just follows you like a love-struck puppy, because it's fashionable."
"More or less." I shrugged.
"Cut the crap Yuuki. We know you've got him around your little finger, and we want in." He took a step closer to intimidate me. The other guy punched his hand to emphasize their point.
"Idiot, if I could use him, I wouldn't out here busting my ass to catch lost animals." I tugged the poodle next to me as if to emphasize my point. They looked at the animal, as if seeing it for the first time.
A moment passed as the leader pondered my statement. "Don't fuck with me." He grabbed my shirt.
"I'm not lying asshole. He knows I've got someone else." I gauged the pair. If I could disable him for a little, I could run away. Hopefully the dog wouldn't drag me down.
He gripped tighter. "Not a good answer." He slapped me hard.
My lip bled. Damn. I glared at him in defiance. "Fuck you." I smirked.
He looked puzzled at my expression.
I seized the opportunity to poke him in the eyes. He grabbed his face in pain. I broke free and ran away. It didn't take long to reach a more populated spot. I smirked again as the second punk caught up to me. Waving goodbye, I quickly took off and walked deeper into the crowd.
"Bitch!" He yanked me backward before pushing me to the ground.
I accidentally let go of the leash, and the dog ran away. I cursed under my breath. Thinking quickly, I screamed, "Ahh, help, this man is attacking me!" Idiot, what did he think he could do in a public place?
He looked around him in panic as everyone in the small plaza froze. "No," he stuttered, "she was trying to escape. Wait! No, I mean she was running Damn it." Glaring at me one last time, he left before anyone could act.
A couple of good Samaritans helped me to my feet. "Has anyone seen my precious Muffin?" I asked hoping that someone managed to catch the mutt.
"Oh, this dog is yours Yuuki-san?" Sawatori suddenly popped into view holding the poodle on its leash. He looked at the dog. "Kind of strange to have a muzzle," he commented.
I felt a little unnerved by his sudden appearance, but accepted the dog leash as he passed it to me. The crowd around me had dispersed now that there was nothing to see. "Umm, thanks," I casually said and left the area.
He followed. "I didn't peg you as a dog person," he said in an attempt to start a conversion.
"I'm not. I'm doing this for work." I replied.
"You work?" He sounded surprised. We turned at a corner.
"Of course," I snapped.
He looked at the dog and then looked at me. "What exactly do you do?"
I stopped walking. "What do you want Sawatori?"
He looked at me sheepishly. "I just want to get to know you better?"
"And?" I asked angrily. No way did he just want to get to know me.
"And nothing Yuuki-san. I just want to be friends." He defended.
I grabbed him by the collar, and pushed him into a wall. Staring straight into his eyes I said, "No you don't. Everyone wants something. It's how people work. Now, what the hell do you want?"
His looked away nervously. "Umm," he paused. Thinking a moment, he replied, "I really like you Yuuki-san."
"I told you I'm not interested." I gripped tighter, making him more uncomfortable.
"I know, but I think you would like me if you got to know me." He replied while struggling to breath properly.
I sneered. "I don't want to get to know you. I like only one person. She's my girlfriend."
He chuckled. It pissed me off.
"What the fuck is so funny?" I growled.
"Come on Yuuki-san," he said. "That was just an act. It was obvious you two were not in a relationship. I mean, the both of you were acting the whole night."
That did it. I had enough. "Don't talk about things you don't know." Immediately, I slammed his head into the wall, and kneed him in the groin. As he slouched over in pain, I walked away.
What did that son of bitch know anyway? Sure, Mai was a little awkward that night, but we both were. We weren't acting. If he thought we were acting, he was mistaken. Mai cared about me; I was sure of it. Wasn't I sure of it? I wanted so badly to be sure of it, but the doubts slowly crept into the back of my mind. It plagued my thoughts as I made my way to Natsuki's office.
We hadn't made progress since my confession. I was beginning to feel like a fool for trying, but I wanted to believe that she would fall in love with me, and this was more than some fleeting one-sided crush. I was trying though, and trying was tough. She always asked me to do something I didn't like. I did it anyway, because I loved her.
A sarcastic laugh escaped my lips. Since when did I believe in love?
Natsuki was out. Luckily there was a pet cage in the corner where I could leave the dog for the night. It was probably uncomfortable, but the lack of space and the necessity of keeping it properly confined outweighed the animal's need for comfort. It was temporary anyway. Natsuki would inform the owner the next morning of the successful capture. I left the case file on top of the cage, so Natsuki would know who to contact job completion.
Still, my mind continued to drift toward the thought of Mai and her feelings. I desperately wanted to confront her, and force her to reveal the truth, yet I was afraid of it. I wanted things to work out, but few things ever did.
Before I knew, I found myself standing in front of Sister's small suburban house. I looked behind me, then to the front. For some reason, it felt as if God was playing a huge joke on me, and a camera crew would show up out of nowhere to record my humiliation. I felt stupid.
Hesitantly, I rang the doorbell and waited. And waited. No one answered. Maybe no one was home. I cursed myself for not calling ahead. Of course, I was fucking retarded. Then a light shined through from the window next to the door. The curtain inside glowed. I heard shuffling behind the door. Slowly it opened, only a crack at first. The light shined through to me.
"Nao?" Mai softly called from the other side. She opened the door further. "What are you doing here? Do you know what time it is?"
"Mai," I said in surprise, "I, umm, wanted to see you." Suddenly, I felt silly for being there.
She yawned as she invited me in. "We have to be quiet. The others are sleeping," she whispered.
I shyly held her hand as she led me to her room. My eyes focused on the floor. What was I doing there anyway? I'm an idiot.
"Nao, what's wrong?" she asked as we sat down on her bed.
I didn't say anything. I didn't know what to say.
She gently put her hand under my chin and lifted my face, so our eyes could meet. Her eyes widened in surprise for a moment. "Nao, you lip!" She brushed her fingers over the split section. "What happened? You didn't go out hunting again did you?"
I frowned. "Of course not," I blurted. It hurt to know that she didn't trust me. "A couple of punks ambushed me in the park. I managed to get away, but not before one of 'em hit me."
"Why would they ambush you?" She seemed genuinely concerned, and a little skeptical. Gently she rubbed the side of my lip.
"They think I've seduced Sawatori, and want a piece of the action." I leaned in to her touch. "Apparently the kid is rich," I added for good measure.
"That sounds a little ridiculous," she said.
"You don't believe me." The mountain of doubts that haunted me began to surface again. I withdrew.
"I want to," she pleaded.
I stood up. "Coming here was a mistake." I felt angry with her. My doubts only fueled my fear further. I began to leave. Maybe I'd think more clearly tomorrow.
"Nao what's wrong?" She held my arm tightly and refused to let go.
"You don't trust me." I coldly replied.
"I'm trying," she said.
I yanked my arm from her hold. "No you're not!" I nearly screamed. All my doubts and frustrations bubbled to the surface. "I'm always the one giving in. Every time you want to do something, we do it, but we do nothing I want." I kicked a small stuffed animal on the ground. "Everyone uses you against me, and you always force me to doing something I don't like. I'm tired of it. I love you, but you obviously feel nothing." I screamed until I ran out of breath.
She said nothing. There really wasn't much to say. Only guilt reflected in her face.
"I can't do this anymore. We're done. I give up." I left. Sure, I kind of wished she would chase after me, stop me and tell me that she really did care, but that would only happen in a fantasy, and I knew too well how far it was from reality. Reality bites.
I didn't make it home. By the time I got back to campus, school had started. I was exhausted from the long walk, but managed to show up to class regardless. Plus, the dreams that came with sleep would only remind me of Mai.
I left class as soon as lunch started. Attending lecture was a terrible idea. I got bored and began daydreaming. A couple of times I actually fell asleep before being woken up by a teacher smacking me in the head. They looked like they wanted to assign me extra work for being so negligent in class, but none of them did. I could only assume that they accepted that I would probably not do it.
Skulking around campus, I managed to find myself in the school chairman's personal garden. I vaguely remembered that Midori held a couple of those ridiculous Hime Ranger meetings there. It was a pretty place, but reminded me a lot of Carnival. I managed to find my way to the gazebo. This was as good a place to nap as any.
"Yo Yuuki, fancy meeting you here." It was the jerks who got me in the park the night before.
I grumbled; this was a shitty place to get into fight. "Fuck off assholes."
The leader, a little on the chubby side, sat next to me. "I'm here to pay you back for last night."
Damn, and I hoped they were there to just intimidate me more. I shoved their leader away. There were five guys. I was in no condition to fight; this was going to be bad. Quickly I got into a defensive position. The all laughed at me. Fuck, that pissed me off.
I flipped out my knife. They shut up. A few backed away in fear, but their leader spoke up. "C'mon, she's just one girl. The bitch probably doesn't even know how to use that knife."
I smiled dangerously. "Oh, you want to find out?"
Their leader took the initiative and lunged at me. I dodged quickly and made sure to leave a long gash up his punching arm. He grabbed the injury. "Bitch!" he screamed.
Unfortunately, the victory was short lived. His comrades used the distraction to ambush me from behind. Right after I cut their leader, they managed to grab both my arms and force me to drop my knife. I cursed.
Their leader smiled. "I've got you now."
If they thought I was going to beg for mercy, they were wrong. "This just proves that you don't have the balls to face one girl alone." I smirked.
He punched me in anger. "What was that bitch?"
I spit out the blood. "You heard me coward." I emphasized the last word for effect. It made him angrier.
He punched me harder in the stomach. "Shut up bitch. You're the coward."
I wheezed in pain. "That didn't even hurt. You hit like an old woman," I taunted. The guys holding me back were shaking in an effort to restrain their laughs.
He looked at his friends. Something in his eyes changed and lost control. Suddenly with renewed strength he began hitting me without stopping while shouting insults at me at the top of his lungs.
I couldn't say it was painless, though I wish it was. The son of bitch wasn't taking it easy. My innards felt like coming out as he continually assaulted my abdomen. After a few minutes, I couldn't stand anymore, and the guys no longer felt like holding me up.
They dropped me to the ground. I groaned in pain, but apparently they thought I wasn't in enough pain. Each of them began kicking me as hard as they could. I heard something crack, but couldn't tell where since everything felt equally painful.
Stars danced across my eyes. My body was no longer responding to my wishes. This was a very shitty day.
"I'll show you who has balls." A distant voice growled before I blacked out.
A/N: Ah, cliffhanger. Don't worry, I no longer have writer's block, so the next chapter will be out in a timely manner (within the month).