"What did you do to your hand?" I asked as I brought Naru his tea early on Sunday morning. He took the cup and waved me away without so much as a word. I had spotted the scabs on his knuckles as soon as he made to take the cup away from me.
"Get out." He growled and I flinched away. I ran out of the office and back to the box of files. Confused as I was about how I felt about Naru, to have him snap at me like that was horrible.
I took a deep breath and held back my tears as I began sorting the never ending pile of cases.
Lin stormed into Naru's office around 11am.
"What do you want?" Naru asked tersely.
"Why is Taniyama-san trying not to cry?" Lin replied curtly.
"I have no idea, why don't you ask her?" Naru replied in a bored voice.
"What happened yesterday?" Lin asked.
"None of your business."
"Noll, I am your partner, you need to tell me these things."
"Don't call me that." Naru spat back and Lin rolled his eyes. "Hara-san-"
But a knock on the door interrupted them.
I knocked on Naru's office door as I could hear him and Lin talking.
"Come in." I heard, muffled by the door. I entered hesitantly.
"Hara-san is here to see you." I said directly to Naru. A flash of anger shot through his eyes before he stood up and nodded.
"Lin, we can finish this later." He said.
"Fine." Lin left the office and I followed, with Naru close behind me.
"Hara-san." Naru greeted the petite woman. I was supposed to be doing yet more filing, but I had to admit I was too interested in what she was going to say to be paying much attention to my work.
"I would like to take you out for lunch, as a thank you for yesterday." Hara-san said coyly.
"Understood." Naru replied resignedly and went to retrieve his jacket. Hara-san had obviously caught me looking because she spoke to me next.
"There's no need to look so surprised. He and I will often go out for meals together now."
I wanted to slap her just to wipe that annoying smirk off her face. But Naru had returned with his coat and they left.
Then a new thought occurred to me. Did Hara Masako know what he was?
It was obvious to just about everyone that she was hitting on him, but if so, was she in the same danger that I was? Did Madoka need to warn her too?
As much as I didn't like the girl, I couldn't very well let her walk around with that murderer, ignorant of his position. But would telling her endanger her?
I just had too many thoughts in my head to deal with.
I managed to busy myself with filing until Naru returned, which was around 2pm. He did not look happy as he stormed into the office.
"Tea." He growled at me before slamming his office door behind him.
It was only then that another new thought occurred to me; what if Hara-san was also part of this dubious world of Naru's?
As I made tea, I thought through what would mean. She had first come in on the night he had killed that gang. Had she made him do it? Was she a client of his real profession? Not the facade that he played?
Again, I knocked on his door before entering and left the tea on his desk. Naru was leant over a piece of paper and rubbing his forehead.
"Does Hara-san know?" I asked him quietly.
Naru's head snapped up as if shocked. He apparently hadn't been aware of my presence at all.
"You have one more week of school before the winter holidays correct?"
"Yes." I replied and he nodded.
"For the remainder of your time working here, bring your school work. I want you to complete your homework before beginning the filing."
"You're going to pay me to do my homework?" I asked, slightly confused.
"Isn't that what I just said, idiot?" He said with relish for the insult and I flinched at his words. He frowned at my movement. "You're afraid of me." He muttered quietly. "You haven't been afraid around me since we first met, what's happened?"
"Nothing." I replied quickly. Too quickly.
He was staring into my eyes with such intensity it almost burned. It was as if he was trying to read my mind.
"Madoka?" He questioned suddenly and I looked away. "What did she do? I told her to leave you alone."
"She didn't do anything." I said nervously, unable to meet his eyes.
"Get back to work." He said coldly. I glanced at him before scurrying out of his office. His face was blank, but his eyes… His beautiful blue eyes were full of pain.
I just didn't know what to think.
After seeing that video, anyone would think that the person committing such acts had to be a monster. Yet there he was, a teenaged boy with emotions and hormones like any other person.
I was struggling to make the two overlap. A monster with feelings? I supposed all monsters had to have feelings really. I didn't know why he had ended up like this, but I don't think anyone would have willingly chosen the life he led, would they?
Later that night at home, I was playing music through my laptop speakers and cooking my dinner in the kitchen area.
"Koboreta namida wa!" I sung as I chopped up some vegetables. "Don't cry - kin demo gin demo nakute!" I threw the vegetables into the wok and gave it a little flick so the contents flipped over. "Arifureta namida - fall from my eyes - megami mo kizukanai!" I continued to sing until I heard a noise down the corridor of my flat.
Quickly, I turned down the heat on the wok and the volume of the music. I gripped the knife I had been using on the vegetables tightly in my hand and called out.
"Who is it?" I suspected I already knew the answer though.
"Who do you think, dolt."
"Get out." I replied, holding the knife up as he came into view. My curtains were already shut so he held no hesitation in walking right up to me. "Get out of my apartment now."
He did not speak, but walked until the knife I was holding was centimetres away from his chest.
"If you are aiming for my heart, you need to point that here." He guided my knife directly over his heart. "And you need to turn it 90 degrees, otherwise my ribs will get in the way." His voice was cold and mechanical. "Alternatively, you could slash my throat." And again he guided the knife up so it was in front of his neck. "Or you could aim for my stomach and hope I would bleed out, it would probably be messier."
I was stunned; my grip on the knife was weakening.
"But how will you dispose of my body? Assuming that you can even carry it yourself? You have no vehicle, no other means of transportation or anything…"
"I could call the police and tell them what you really are." I stammered. "I could say it was self-defence."
"Self-defence to kill your unarmed boss?"
"Please leave."
"Not until you tell me why you are suddenly afraid. I suspect you knew what I was from the beginning, what has changed?"
"Wouldn't you be afraid if a monster could get into your apartment?"
"A monster?" He sounded almost insulted. But I realised there was no point in denying it anymore.
"Mori-san showed me the video of what you did last Tuesday…"
"Echigoya must have sent it to her." He cursed under his breath. "I see. Well that explains your behaviour. Do you still want me to leave?"
"Can you explain it to me? Why you did it?" I asked as I lowered my knife. I turned away from him and back to my dinner. Naru paused at my question, then took a seat at the table and watched me cook.
"There was a woman called Saito Mikiko. She was a prostitute and somehow ended up pregnant." He said carefully. "She gave birth to a baby girl. She and her baby girl lived reasonably happily until the girl was about five years old. Saito-san died in a car accident. The young girl was taken into care until social services located her father. The little girl thought she was so lucky to finally meet her father. But she was taken away from her friends and the life she knew. She had a private tutor hired for her, one of the best in Japan. But instead of learning geography and history and other normal subjects, she learnt business and economics and languages." He paused to take a breath and I looked around. He was staring at the table with a furious intensity. "Her father gave her everything she wanted. But for her thirteenth birthday, he gave her to a 'business partner' for the night. His investment had finally become useful. She was learning the family business and fast. She was used for sex and in return listened to secrets to share with her father."
"Where is this going?" I asked quietly.
"Just listen." He replied. "Her father had heard whispers of a new danger coming into Japan. Not dangerous to him, but perhaps to his associates. He talked to a person he knew high up in the police force and sent his daughter in undercover; her biggest mission yet." He paused again. "She knew all about this danger, everything about him and decided to use that information against him. She had the backing of one of the largest Yakuza families in Japan, so he had very little choice. She tested him by sending him to deal with an issue that had arisen. He exterminated the pests perfectly."
And now I understood why he was telling me these things.
"A few days after he had proven himself, the young girl met up with him again. For years she had been used and abused. And every man that had used her had told her that he loved her. It didn't take long for her to think that sex equalled love. She craved love as it was the only thing her father couldn't buy for her. She took the young man and forced him to do the things that she herself had been forced to do for so many years. Because sex equalled love. Even if she had to threaten the lives of everyone he knew and cared about."
I suddenly didn't feel very hungry any more.
"And what about the young man's story?" I whispered as I turned off the stove.
"That's a story for another day." He replied.
"Does everyone in your world have a story like that?"
"Not all, but more than you would perhaps think." He replied. "Very few come from good backgrounds."
I put a lid on the half cooked food.
"I'll leave now." He said as he stood up.
"No." I replied quickly. "You can stay, if you want."
"And do what?" He asked. "Burden you with the company of a monster?"
I studied his face. It was as usual blank, bar the pain in his eyes. Perhaps, I thought bitterly, monsters were made not born. I had been too quick to judge.
"We can watch a film?" I suggested weakly. "It's just all been a lot to deal with these last few weeks and that video gave me nightmares and…" I trailed off.
To my surprise, he nodded. I picked out another crappy horror film and flipped the lights. We sat in silence watching the film until my head began to droop and my eyes began to close.
When I opened them again, he was carrying me through to my bedroom.
"Naru?" I whispered sleepily and he looked down. "Will you tell the boy's story one day?"
"Maybe one day." He replied sadly as he placed me down in my bed and covered me up with my duvet.
Author's note: So basically no one liked last chapter and I found it very interesting how some of you worded your reviews. But this story now has the most reviews of any of my stories. I won't ramble on now though, please review!