When I woke the next morning I wondered if the whole thing had been a dream. I knew he could not openly show affection but at breakfast he was surprisingly cold.
"Are you alright Narumi?" Yasuhara-san asked, obvious to my concern.
"I'm fine. I just had an… An interesting night." He replied. The way he said those words made me wonder if something else had happened apart from our intimate moment.
We returned to our rooms after breakfast to pack, but I had barely finished closing my suitcase when Naru burst into our room.
"What is it?" Yasuhara-san asked.
"Hara-san is missing."
"What?"
"She never came back after breakfast."
"Wouldn't it be better if she stayed missing? She was speaking to Urado yesterday."
"Not considering what she knows, she could be telling anyone anything about me. Mai isn't the only one I have to keep an eye on." Naru replied to Yasuhara-san in English and I scowled at them both upon hearing my name. I resolved to work harder at school.
"Then let's find her."
"Can't you two talk in Japanese? Like seriously I get you are trying to hide something from me but who the hell am I going to tell?"
"I will get Lin and Madoka." Naru said, ignoring my question.
I glared after him, annoyed by his concern for Hara-san and his lack of regard for my questions. Then I remembered that he probably had bigger worries right now and felt bad for my reaction.
And so our search began. We informed the staff who aided us and set off in the other direction with Mori-san and Lin. Yet by lunchtime neither hide nor hair of Hara-san had been seen.
We did find Minami-san and Atsugi-san though. Someone had cut their throats.
I gagged when I saw it and before I knew it, Yasuhara-san had guided me to the bathroom. If seeing it was bad, the smell was awful. The fresh blood that had poured from their necks pooled on the ground.
"Who did that? We weren't allowed any weapons!" I gasped between dry heaves.
"You honestly think that flimsy airport style security stopped Madoka?" Naru said as we continued our search.
"You think she killed him? But why?"
"If she didn't, someone else would have done. He was claiming to have killed someone that he has not." Yasuhara-san answered.
"That Oliver Davis person? The person that killed your brother?"
But Naru did not respond.
Then a sudden hoarse scream sounded from ahead of us and we all began to run towards it. It had been low and I suspected male. So it probably was not Hara-san but still, it might've given us some clue to her whereabouts and we couldn't just leave someone in distress.
Naru made to open the door at the end of the hall but it was locked. Yasuhara-san gestured and Naru stepped back. I watched as Yasuhara-san fiddled with it for a minute and then the lock clicked.
Naru pushed me behind him before opening the door.
Urado was lying on the floor; dead.
Hara-san was standing by the window.
"What happened?" Naru demanded.
"Some guys just can't hold their arsenic." Hara-san replied without looking around.
"Why did you kill him?"
"Why do any of us kill anyone?" She said. I thought her voice sounded sad and far away. "I was told too." And her voice cracked.
She turned and I saw tears streaming down her face. Her mascara was smudged and her cheeks were read.
A sudden thought struck me, Naru had told me she had been used for sex and finding out secrets, but that didn't mean she'd killed. Perhaps, just maybe, this was her first kill. I felt the odd urge to go and comfort her.
"If this is how you are handling the situation you are not cut out for this." Naru said harshly. "We need to get out of here."
"Naru! Don't be an arse!" I walked past the dead body, trying my hardest not to look at it, and fished a clean tissue out of my pocket. "Here, your makeups smudged a bit."
Hara-san stared at me with wide eyes before taking the tissue and wiping her tear tracked face. I think she was shocked at my kindness. I suppose her reaction wasn't entirely unexpected, what person would comfort someone who had just poisoned someone else? This whole business with Naru had seriously screwed up my ideas of wrong at right. Mentally, I sighed.
"Yasuhara, take Mai and Hara-san back to our rooms and collect the belongings. I expect you by the car in five minutes." Naru said as he gazed intently around the room. "I will find Lin and Madoka."
I ushered Hara-san out of the room, with Yasuhara-san close behind, and away from the third dead body I'd seen that day. Little did I know that it would not be the last I would see in the next few days.
Five minutes later and we were passing security and climbing into the car. We had not alerted them to the presence of Urado's dead body; doing so would mean war amongst the remaining guests for violation of what was essentially a peace treaty between gangs. They would find the body in their own time and no one would know.
Hara-san, who had arrived separately, joined us in leaving. I wasn't sure if Naru was protecting her or what. But we were quickly on the road and speeding away from the mansion, Lin and Madoka's car behind us. Hara-san had calmed down before we passed through security, her face regaining its usual composure.
"Are you okay?" I whispered to her and she stared at me again with wide eyes before nodding slightly. "It'll be okay." I added reassuringly, not that I had any idea of what it was that would be okay. I did not know if she could live with the guilt of murdering someone. Even if that someone was a bad person, as Naru had claimed Urado to be.
We had been driving for no more than five minutes when a sudden explosion caused as all – well all of us apart from Naru, who was driving – to look around. A large mushroom cloud was billowing into the cloud.
"What did you do?" I shrieked at Naru. He had to be responsible.
"It was just a little bomb." He replied with a smirk. "I was covering up Hara-san's murder."
"How on earth did you get a bomb in there?" I leant forward in my seat to watch what I could see of his face for a reaction.
"Didn't I tell you not to underestimate Madoka's ability?" He replied coldly.
"Why did you do that?" Hara-san asked. "I did not need that covered up."
"I did not cover it up for you benefit." Naru said. "But you are now accompanying me and you know where I am going, don't you? Leaving you behind would have been foolish and I don't want to give them any clues. A bomb will have them all scared and distracted."
"But you could've seriously hurt someone!" I protested.
"Mai, I hope you realise how stupid that statements sounds."
Hara-san laughed and I looked round at her.
"Well it is." She protested weakly and I couldn't help but smile a little.
"Where are we going?"
"I told you before."
"The sea?"
"Yes." Naru said. Besides me, Hara-san inhaled sharply and I looked around at her.
"You all know where we are going and I don't?" I surmised.
"I don't know for certain, but I have an idea." Yasuhara-san said from the passenger seat.
"But no one will tell me exactly where?"
"I did tell you." Naru said coldly.
"Yeah because the sea isn't like 71% of the world's surface or something." I replied flippantly.
But Naru ignored me and hit a button the dashboard and a ringing sound filled the car. The person at the other end of the call picked up. "Lin? Madoka? Just follow this car."
"Will do." Lin said.
"Talk later." And he hung up.
Author's note: Okay so I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, it's short and I feel it's a bit rushed but eugh. Sorry for not updating in forever! I had a Japanese oral and stuffs.
AMANDA CALM DOWN I DIDN'T UPDATE FOR TWO DAYS.
And to the guest that asked about Wattpad. I now have a Wattpad account but I have nothing posted on there. If anyone would like me to upload my stories to the site I am happy to do it!
And now for the most exciting bit!
If you want a teaser, please go to YouTube and type "a hint of a threat teaser snavej" and you should find a dorky video of me reading out the teaser. I have done it this way so that my guest reviewers can see it too! Because some of you don't want the teaser so I otherwise would've had to message it to you.
I have also done a reading of one of AmyNChan's oneshots. And she has done one of mine on her YouTube account. And then we read out the Alternatives we wrote for this story in each other's accents so please check those out because it's hilarious and my American accent is so bad...
If you guys like the video thing, I am totally up for reading out entire stories so you can listen to them as audio books or whatever - cos I love audio books so yeah...
Please review with your thoughts and if you watch the videos leave messages about them here too XD I'll see if I can post links of the things on my profile page thingy...
Please review!