And so for the next week, I took my homework with me to work and completed it before beginning the filing, just as Naru had told me too.
Twice during the week, Hara Masako turned up and stole Naru away from the office. Having heard her story, I should have pitied her and yet, I couldn't. Partially because she was making Naru unhappy, but mostly because she was laying her filthy mitts on the man I…
But I couldn't let that thought finish in my head.
Hara-san still had a choice. I had read once that it was quite common for the abused to become an abuser. It was a vicious circle as a result of damaged psyches but she still had a choice.
And somehow, I didn't think she would want my pity. Pity didn't solve anything, didn't make anything better. I had had people pity me before, having lost both my parents at a relatively young age. I had hated it.
So instead, whenever she turned up and dragged him away, I was polite and as kind to her as I dared be. Asking if she was well and offering her tea.
She seemed somewhat confused by my actions and brusquely brushed me away, but I did not stop trying.
On Saturday morning, just as I arrived, Naru called me into his office.
"Are you any good with children?"
"I'm okay, I guess?" I replied, thrown by this weird question. "Why?"
"I have just been called regarding a missing child. Apparently the police aren't taking it too seriously because the boy has run away before."
"That's horrible! It's freezing out there!"
"Exactly, it is for that reason that we are heading to the site in about twenty minutes." Naru replied. "Go and get your coat, and make a flask of tea."
I did as I was asked, but when I came out of the kitchen clutching the flask of tea, Hara-san was standing in the main office.
"Good morning Hara-san!" I greeted her cheerfully.
"We can't go for lunch today Hara-san." A low voice said behind me. I spun around to see Naru standing in his office door. "I have a missing child to find."
"Oh." Hara-san faltered. She looked genuinely disappointed.
"She could come with us!" I suggested quickly. "If we are looking for a kid, we need all the pairs of eyes we can get right?" I looked at Naru for approval and he glared angrily back. I faltered under the furious look he gave me.
"Would that be okay?" Hara-san asked sweetly.
"Fine." Naru growled and stormed away.
Half an hour later and we were all standing outside a church. We were greeted by an elderly man, who introduced himself as Father Toujou, and a young blonde haired man who looked very familiar.
I glanced around and noticed a load of children playing beside the church. It was a very mixed bunch of kids, obviously from all over the world; an unusual sight in Japan.
"Father Toujou looks after the children of his foreign parishioners while their parents are at work. He cares for them, and if they can't go back to their homeland for some reason, he takes them in." The young man said to me.
"I see."
"While we're listening to what he has to say, please keep the children occupied." Naru said to me and Hara-san. I expected Hara-san to object in some way, but she didn't and so we started playing with the children.
Some of the younger girls and boys were under the impression that Hara-san was a princess of some sort and Hara-san had played along, much to their delight.
I joined some of the slightly older children playing football. It was all going well until I managed to boot the ball into the woods that ran alongside the church grounds. I apologised awkwardly to the children and went to get the ball.
"The police aren't taking us seriously anymore." Father Toujou said as he offered the two men a seat.
"Because the child has run away so often before?"
"No, not at all." He replied sadly. "But the children seem to be taking it in turns to run away. After the third one, the police wouldn't come and help anymore. I mean they all come back, but none of them will tell us why they are running in the first place. The weather is getting an awful lot colder and we don't want one of them to get hurt because of whatever silly prank they are playing."
"We were hoping," the young blonde man said. "That you could find Tonnato and then talk to the children. They won't listen to us, but as 'scary' outsiders, they might take you more seriously."
"I see." Naru said. "Is there anything else we should know?"
"Not that I can think of, off the top of my head. But please don't hesitate to ask if you want to know something."
"Right."
The four men headed out into the grounds.
"Where is Mai?" Naru asked Hara-san.
"She was playing football." Hara-san replied as she gestured vaguely towards the pitch.
Before Naru could ask anything else, a tapping sound vibrated through the playground.
"What's that?"
"They are playing stick." Father Toujou said. "It's like hide and seek, but when ready, they tap a stick."
Naru began walking purposefully towards the origin of the sound, Lin in his wake.
"We'll wait here for you." Father Toujou said.
"Understood."
I found the football easily enough, but as I turned to walk back to the pitch, an odd tapping noise reached my ears. Curious, I turned and started towards the noise.
"Hello?" I called out, wondering if it was one of the children trying to play a prank on me or something. No one answered.
I kept walking until the forest opened up onto a path. There was what looked like an outbuilding with a fence running along the back. The noise was definitely getting louder, so I had to be getting closer, right?
Before I could take two steps however, a noise to my left caused me to turn.
"Mai? What you doing here?" It was Naru and Lin.
"I was retrieving the ball." I held it up to show them. "And then I heard the tapping sound..."
"So you just decided to follow it?" He asked exasperatedly.
"Well, yeah."
He rolled his eyes at me as Lin continued towards the sound of the noise.
"Naru, I've found-" Lin began, but was cut off as a small child flew at him.
"Daddy!"
"What?" I exclaimed.
"Are you Tonnato?" Naru asked the boy, ignoring the fact that said boy was clinging to Lin.
The boy nodded.
In the end, Lin ended up carrying the boy back to the church. We walked in an awkward silence that I had no idea how to fill.
There was no way on earth that Lin was that boy's father. My basis for that being that Lin was tall and Asian and the boy had a completely different build with dark skin and the beginnings of an afro.
When we arrived back at the playground, Hara-san was still playing with the children.
"Off with his head!" She was shrieking theatrically at one of the little boys, who the other children proceeded to tickle mercilessly. However, when she spotted us, she rushed over. "Father Toujou explained the situation and I think I know what's going on with the children."
"Lin, play with the boy for now. Go on Hara-san." Naru said as Father Toujou and the blonde man joined us. Lin was dragged away by the young boy.
"They think they are going to find their parents. Apparently a boy called Kenji ran off and hit his stick and they were told that he 'found his father'. So all the orphans are trying it; they think that if they run away and bang a stick about, their real parents will come running." She explained quickly, looking at Father Toujou for confirmation.
"Kenji-kun died. We told them that so they wouldn't be upset and it wasn't technically a lie; his father was dead." He said regretfully. "How did you find that out? We've been asking them what's going on for weeks?"
"I have a way with words." Hara-san replied proudly.
"Let's give these children a talk then."
"I'll do it." Hara-san said.
And she did, while the young blonde man, who told me his name was John Brown, told me what on earth was actually going on!
It was only as we were about to leave that I realised where I had seen John before. He had been visiting the woman who was in that house Naru had pretended to look around. What had her name been? Morishita something-rather...
I wondered if he recognised me, but didn't dare say anything. Naru had pretended to be someone else then, I doubt he wanted me bringing it up now!
Naru dismissed me as soon as we arrived back at the office, for which I was grateful. The last few days of term had been hectic and I was looking forward to a relaxing evening.
Little did I know, I was not about to get any relaxation.
I had been home for about an hour when he broke in, again.
And the worst thing was that I didn't even jump. He just strolled down my corridor like he own the place and joined me on the sofa, where I was yet again watching a crappy horror film.
"Why did you invite her today?" He asked quietly.
"Shouldn't I have?"
"You realise what she did to me, don't you? I thought I made it clear enough." He sounded almost angry.
"She is blackmailing you into having sex with her." I replied, not looking at him.
"You realise that is akin to rape."
"As if you are any better." I retorted, rounding on him.
"I would never do that!" He hissed back.
"Really? So killing people is better than raping people?" I had to try hard not to shout at him, but went on before he could say anything. "And it's not like you haven't forced me into things!"
"What things?" He snorted. "A well-paying job?"
"You kissed me!" I growled. "And didn't ask me if I was okay with that!"
"You could've stopped me."
"Mori-san said that the only reason, the only reason, I am still alive is because you want me alive." I snapped. "Do you really think I am going to stop you doing anything when my life hangs on the line?!"
He looked taken aback by my words.
"And you've threatened my friends, who are the only people I have left in this world! And you have broken into my house, rendering the only safe place I have gone! I have been sleeping with a knife because I have been scared for weeks and it's all because of you!" I was on my feet now and shouting at him. "I really don't see how you are any better than she is. So if you expect for some demented reason for me to be nice to you! I am damn well going to be nice to her too!"
It was only as Naru stood up and looked down at me with fury in his eyes that I remembered that I had just yelled a lot of very nasty things at a murderer.
"I was wrong." He said in a deadly calm voice. "I was wrong to have kissed you."
"And the rest of it?"
"The rest of it is irrelevant; there is more at stake here than one stupid sixteen year old getting scared."
"You jerk!" I made to pound by fists on his chest, but he caught my hands with apparent ease.
"You're fired." He said, letting go of my wrists and backing away. I fell limply to the floor in shock, when I looked up, he was gone.
I didn't even realise I was crying until I felt the tears soak through my pyjamas. He was going to kill me. I knew it. The man I both loved and hated was going to kill me and there was nothing I could do about it.
I didn't really watch the rest of the film. I wasn't even aware of when I stopped crying or when I fell asleep.
The next thing I knew, I had jumped awake at the sound of someone banging on my front door. Somehow, I had fallen asleep on the sofa. I pushed the blanket – that I didn't remember being there before – off of my body and hastened to answer it.
"Hello?" I whispered into the bright sunlight. There were two figures standing outside, a redheaded woman and a tall sandy haired man.
"Taniyama Mai?" The woman asked.
"Yes?"
"You're under arrest."
Author's note: This took far too long to write and I'm not really happy with the middle part of this chapter. But oh well. I have a few things to say with regards to reviews I have received...
1) "No matter what, naru is also a 'man' and i can't help but be bothered whether he enjoyed 'it' during those moments [even when he outwardly suggested that he felt dirtied]." To this reviewer, no, he did not enjoy it. Rape is a disgusting this and no one enjoys it, regardless of whether they are male or otherwise.
2)"Y u stop rite the story" I have not stopped writing the story, I just didn't update yesterday. Chill out.
In general, please do not tell me what to do with my fic or how to update or when to update. I will not make a chapter longer or update sooner just because one of you have told me to. If anything, it makes me want to do the opposite just to annoy you.
Please don't get me wrong, I love hearing your thoughts and guesses for what's going to happen, but I do sort of have a plan for this and I will be sticking to it.
Okay, now I've finished bitching, please review!