i'm sorry this took so long... but it's really long to make up for it
disclaimer: nope still own nothing
Mai was at her limit for controlling everything she could. She wasn't very successful with it.
"Move forward." Naru commanded again. Mai was momentarily frozen and did not comply. A nudge between the shoulder blades reminded her of what she was supposed to be doing.
"Mai." Naru gave a warning tone just to be sure. She was ushered forward into the large living room the suite had, the first of many rooms in the mini-apartment.
"Good, now sit on the couch." Naru ordered. From in front of him, Mai scowled, but she complied without a word. Naru scanned the room before hard blue eyes came into contact with cinnamon brown ones that were now a molten gold with the rage they displayed. There was a heavy moment of silence.
"Naru! What the heck is wrong with you?" Mai shouted from her position.
"What's wrong with me?" Naru repeated. His eyes lifted upward as he tried to fight a smile.
"Yes what's wrong with you." Mai answered not noticing he was trying to hide the sliver of amusement at her blowup. "Normal people don't go around pulling guns on others. You gonna tell me or not?"
By this point Naru remembered why he'd pulled the stunt in the first place. He didn't answer Mai which just aggravated her more.
"Well?" she challenged him from her position on the couch before standing up.
Naru simply discarded the gun on the same table the box was on. He looked at her for a moment, before striding to her and slamming her against the wall. A little in pain, more shocked than anything, Mai flinched.
"You, little missy, have a lot of explaining to do." Naru ground out through his teeth.
"Let me go right now or else Naru." Mai threatened though his grip on her forearms was solid. And both were too distracted to notice Naru's knee in between her own.
"Or else what?" he asked amused that Mai thought she had any power in the current situation. Well that was until he took complete stock of the current situation. Naru fought a blush as he tried to focus on Mai's "supposed" threat.
You're turning into a real pervert you know that Noll?" Gene asked in his head.
"Not at a time like this Gene!" Naru yelled.
"I'll scream rape." Mai told him. Naru looked at her oddly for a moment, then he let her go and walked a few feet away from her. He didn't look it, but Mai knew he was conflicted with something. She could tell by the way his body was postured; tense as he stood deliberating something. And Mai could almost hear the wheels in his head turning. He turned back to her.
"We're the only ones on this floor Mai." He told her moving back to their position against the wall. "And I know that you aren't who you say you are. Please elaborate on that one."
"I, I don't know what you're talking about." Mai flushed indignantly.
"yes you do." Naru replied calmly, "it was on the envelope, the bank card, and the hotel ID. Your real name is Mai Taniyama and I'd like to know why you felt the need to hide it from me."
Mai scowled once more, "I told you earlier that I was adopted." She spat.
"True, but if that were simply the case you wouldn't have tried to hide it from me like you did." Naru countered. "I want to know why you felt the need to lie to me and I want to know everything right now." He demanded. Naru's eyes met Mai's and he noted they burned with an angry passion, Naru was impressed despite the situation.
"Oh yeah? And what about you?" Mai asked. She threw her hands up and stalked away from him.
"What about me?" he asked raising a brow.
"The one who gets thrown into an absurd situation with a weapon wielding nut job but can take it like it's all in a day's work is asking me this?" Mai asked in disbelief. When Naru didn't give a response she continued. "Even if you are a retired cop or whatever, normal people don't react to situations like that the way you did. That makes me seriously doubt that you have absolutely no idea about why you're involved in all this. So before you go pulling a gun on me you have some things to explain to me first."
Naru; was speechless. He knew this girl wasn't very bright, at least not compared to him, but he'd always had the feeling she was very intuitive. Still that didn't mean he'd expected him to turn the tables on him lie she did. Mai took a breath and closed her eyes as though in concentration.
"We need to be completely honest with each other here." Mai said finally, "If not for the sake of our own survival than at least for the sake of our loved ones. If not, well, they might as well just kill us all now."
Naru looked at her for a moment, knowing she was completely right but not wanting to admit it. But how could he tell her his life story, the truth about who he was, and what had happened in the past few months? The answer was simple, he couldn't. But this woman, barely a woman, had come to him. He was totally dependent on her to find Kasai. After that, if she was lying he'd take care of her without drawing his gun.
"To start off with, you were right. My real name is Taniyama, not Matsuzaki. Now I don't know if you'd know about this, but my adoptive father or more accurately my big brother, is Hoshou Takigawa"
"What does that have to do with your real name?" Naru interjected.
"Takigawa is head and director of the Taniyama electronics company. He took over when my parents were murdered fifteen years ago in a home invasion. I was the sole survivor." He could see tears threatening to leak at the mention of her deceased family. Though now that she mentioned it, the Taniyama electronics company was very widely known in Europe where he'd spent most of his young life. And oh the irony, they were some of the biggest franchisers and supporters of paranormal research.
"But that would mean, you're the sole heir to the entire Taniyama Empire." Naru commented.
Mai fiddled with her hands, "See why I go by Matsuzaki now? All my life, even though my father's name was different from mine I was always known as Mai Taniyama, daughter to Hoshou and Ayako Takigawa, heiress to the electronics empire my poor parents built up from the ground. I was always pitied by the adults I met, and I had lots of friends, but that was a problem too. I had so many I couldn't tell which ones liked me for me, and which ones like me for the size of my wallet."
"I suppose I could relate to that." Naru answered. Mai shot him a glance as if to say 'shut up and let me finish'.
"I only wanted to live a normal life out of the spotlight, not be bought into all the best schools because of my family's name and power. So I often went to public schools rather than those elite schools where all the kids are stuck up and only care about surrounding themselves with the richest friends. I wanted to be normal, you know, have regular friends maybe even a boyfriend or two. I honestly don't know anymore."
Mai was looking down at this point so she missed the flare of jealousy that stole across Naru's face at the mention of boyfriends. No idea where it came from if you asked him.
"I was known in Japan, well known for the charity work my father was involved in as well as this big scandal they had with one of the families; something about a murder in the company, I don't really know, dad kept all of that under lock and key whenever I was in hearing. But because of that I had no desire to live in the spotlight with the expectations of others always weighing on my shoulders. Too much for me. So I begged dad to let me come to school here in America, there were company ties here in New York, so if I ever needed help I could easily get it. However, there are fans everywhere, so I changed my last name so I couldn't be recognized. For the past four years, I've been Mai Matsuzaki to all my friends and in everything I've done. That's why I freaked out when I found the envelope under my door this morning. It was addressed to me, by my real name. That means someone's known where I've been, and I don't think it was a recent discovery." She finished.
After a pause, Mai lifted her head to look at Naru. She couldn't read his expression. Naru knew she couldn't lie, it just wasn't physically possible. She'd been completely honest with him and the least he could do was return the favor.
"I'm originally from Japan as well." He began, "however, after I was born I was abandoned in America. Then, by a stroke of luck I was adopted by an English couple that specialized in psychic research. It turns out that I had extraordinary psychic abilities, so much that using them improperly could possibly kill me. But using minimal amounts of them turned me into a doctor. And I used my English name that was given to me upon joining a new family." He paused once more.
"what was it?" Mai asked
"Oliver Davis." Naru replied.
"Wait, you're Oliver Davis?" Mai blinked, "But I read in the paper a couple of months ago that you were killed by a gunshot wound." She tried to reason. Mai saw Naru grimace as she said that.
"I was leading up to that." Naru said in a tight voice. When Mai made no move to say anything, he continued. "I had a twin brother by the name of Eugene Davis. He was what you'd call a perfect medium. If he communicated a spirit he would speak the language the spirit spoke. We also had a strong connection that would let me bounce my power off of him until we reached the level of PK, or psychokenisis needed to move an object. When we were fifteen we moved to New York to conduct paranormal investigations. Three years later Gene and I were offered positions as temporary FBI agents. We took them, and became a great team because of his medium and my clairvoyant abilities. Basically if I could get an object that belonged to a missing person I could track their location. But then, there was this one case. Gene and I had to investigate a school in Japan where people were suffering injuries and they suspected a student was cursing them. We found and eliminated the hitogata or cursing dolls. And then I came down with a case of mild anemia. And I figured out that the teacher was the one behind all the curses. But before I could have her arrested, she escaped. A few months later, Gene and I were back in DC, where we worked, and were heading home. Then, we ran into a man, and he approached Gene, because I had a hat covering my face. He said a few things to him, then pulled a gun and before I could do anything he was on the sidewalk. He was dead before anything could be done." He had to stop, and Mai could see the pain that was hidden.
"Naru," she said, "I had no idea that you lost someone that close. Gene sounded like he was your best friend. I'm sure that if he was still here he'd tell you that nothing was your fault."
"He does tell me, all the time actually. But still, that bullet was meant for me. I know it was." Naru replied.
"What?" Mai asked.
"We have a bond, apparently strong enough to go across the border of life and death. He talks to me every so often. But increasingly so today, all those times I seemed not be paying attention to you was because I was actually talking to him. Anyways, we figured that if they wanted to have Oliver Davis dead, then they would get it. So it was published in the paper that Oliver Davis was dead. Then I went under the FBI as my birth name; Kazuya Shibuya. For now I've been on leave for over a month. The reason I've been able to get away with it is because the FBI like having me there to solve cases so they have to deploy less of their agents."
"Oh," Mai said processing everything. Then something dawned on her, "wait. Naru, you said you have clairvoyant abilities. You were given Kasai's barrette. Couldn't you track her down with it?"
"I tried already," Naru answered, "There seems to be a psychic barrier around her. Possibly your parents as well."
"I'm sorry, but that explains why you didn't like to talk about your past." Mai admitted.
"And that does explain why you didn't give your real name at first." Naru replied. "But the only thing I'm not entirely sure of is why you're involved in all this because you're just an heiress, while I'm an honorary 'police man' who's managed to make plenty of enemies in the short time I've been doing it."
Mai shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine."
"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." Urado muttered as he looked at the monitors that overlooked the city.
Ubusuna shrugged, "she got a little overexcited, not that I can blame her. If that had been me in her position I wouldn't have hesitated to put a bullet through the good doctor's head."
"People like her aren't supposed to make such careless mistakes." Urado argued.
"You want her dead anyways." Ubusuna pointed out, "so what does it matter who takes care of her as long as she's dead in the end?"
"You don't get it." Urado snapped, "Had she been hurt before I…" he trailed off. No, he couldn't tell Ubusuna yet. That would ruin everything and leave him out to dry.
Kasai didn't want to break. If there was one thing cousin Oliver taught her it was not to show fear no matter how afraid you actually were. However, it was hard not to be afraid when you were traveling to who knows where in a black car with tinted windows, and with strange men could and probably would rape her if they wanted to. But Kasai was a smart girl, and had been working at the knot that bound her hands since she woke up. It was almost completely undone, now all she needed was to wait for the perfect moment to jump up and out of the car and hopefully find some help.
Thankfully, the goons that had taken her hadn't noticed she was awake, to her great advantage. Now that her hands were undone she was working on her ankle bonds, thankful the thugs had put her in a lying position where her legs were tucked up close to her hands. Letting her do as she pleased.
Kasai kept her eyes closed as she undid the knots, while cousin Oliver had taught her self-control, cousin Gene had taught her slightly more useful skills; like tying and untying knots. The road was now bumpy, indicating that they were somewhere in the hicks at least. The bumps were starting to slide Kasai over to the edge of the seat and she would fall off it if she didn't move soon. She nearly did fall off when the car stopped abruptly.
"Grab her." One of the goons said to the other. Kasai kept her body limp like Oliver had told her as one of the grunts hoisted her up over their shoulder. Kasai cracked an eye open and caught sight of trees different than she had seen back home in China.
'Okay, here goes nothing' she thought. She pulled the loosened ropes around her feet and ankles then jumped from the weak grasp the man had on her. When her feet hit the ground she tore off running. Where? She didn't know, but anywhere was better than where she was now. When she reached the tree line she ducked and ran close to the ground. She looked back for a split second to see the men after her. It caused her to bump into a chain link fence. Knowing she needed to pick up speed, Kasai quickly jumped and started climbing. But it was too late, she was grabbed and despite her struggles and cries she remained in the hold of the two men until they reached a seemingly abandoned warehouse.
"You two seem like you ran into trouble with this one." A cold voice that could only belong to an old man, resounded through the building. Kasai opened her eyes to see just the figure she had imagined the voice belonged to. A cold and scary looking old man.
"She was a feisty one, but nothin' we couldn't handle." One of the grunts replied casually.
"Let me go!" Kasai shouted as she started to wriggle in the arms of the grunt.
"That senseless screaming will cease this instance!" the older man snapped.
"Who are you?" Kasai asked in fear.
"That, would be none of your concern little girl." the man spat.
"How in hell is it none of my concern?" Kasai asked angrily, "You're the one behind my kidnapping you should at least give me your name." she argued.
"You are very much like your cousins." The man commented. Kasai froze.
"What do you know about my cousins?" she asked cautiously.
"Not much, but enough." The man admitted.
"Enough? Wouldn't you know more about my cousins if you're the one behind all this?" Kasai asked.
"I'm not behind all of this per say. But, I am getting paid a substantial amount of money for following orders." The man replied, before waving his hand in dismissal. "I'm tired of her, put her in with the others." He commanded.
The grunts pulled Kasai, kicking and screaming, into a storage room. The grunt with the free hands pulled out a gun as they approached a certain door. He cracked it open and pointed the gun inside.
"Stay where you are." He ordered pointing the gun into the shadows. The other grunt shoved Kasai into the room.
"Just dial for room service." The first grunt joked as they walked out and bolted the door shut.
Kasai curled up in a little ball. She shook uncontrollably as she cried. Then she heard a voice speaking in a language that she sort of recognized.
"Who's there?" Kasai lisped and switched between English and Chinese.
"I asked if you could speak English." A woman's voice replied.
Kasai's eyes adjusted to the din lighting the room possessed. And a figure stepped from the shadows. Kasai recognized the shape. It was a slightly older woman with red hair that went down to mid-back. The mystery woman went over to a beat up table lamp. The room instantly brightened and Kasai blinked. The woman smiled at her as Kasai nodded to answer her previous question.
"Who, who are you?" Kasai asked with a shaky voice. The woman simply knelt down so she could be eye level with the little girl.
"My name is Ayako Takigawa." She responded, "What's your name little one?"
"I'm Kasai, Kasai Shibuya." Kasai responded.
"Did they hurt you at all Kasai?" Ayako asked as she looked the girl over.
"No, though I might have a bruise from landing on my behind so much." Kasai admitted.
"Well, that's comforting to know." Ayako said in reply.
"I just want to know what they want with us." Kasai admitted with tears starting to well up in her eyes. Ayako wanted to just give her a hug and tell her everything would be alright, but she didn't want to lie to the girl.
"They mentioned something about my cousins, are they okay?" she asked.
"I'm sorry Kasai; I don't know who your cousins are or why you are here." Ayako admitted.
"Do you know why you're here?" Kasai immediately asked.
"I'm the wife of a CEO who has a few people that don't like the way he does business. I believe I am here as collateral to get him to hand over the company." Ayako answered. Kasai looked at her.
"Now come Kasai," Ayako picked her up and set her down on a cot, "let's share a few stories."
Currently Mai was avoiding all eye contact with him. She couldn't even look in his direction without feeling guilty. She had told him things she hadn't told people she'd known for five years and trusted more than him. Yet, if she hadn't she could be on the floor of the suite, dead. Mai looked at Naru out of the corner of her eye and saw him working a sharp knife in between the lips of the box they'd dug up, trying to will it to open. They were working in a very awkward and uncomfortable silence after the both of them had wordlessly agreed not to talk anymore about their past. Mai knew she should try and help him, but she couldn't stand to be in the same room as him at the moment.
"I need to go clean up." She told him as she left the living room. He waited a few minutes before setting the knife down on the table. Naru sighed as he took in his predicament. He pulled a small gun on a girl who'd only been shot at less than an hour before and was now using one of his throwing knives to try and pry the box open. And right in front of her where she could see the sharp edges.
'What to do? What to do?' Naru thought as he fiddled with his hands, something he'd never do were it other girls that troubled him.
'Here's an idea' Gene said, 'go apologize to her!' he shouted so loudly that Naru visibly flinched.
'Why should I?' Naru asked.
'Oh I don't know, maybe because you pulled a gun on her?' Gene shouted again.
Naru sighed, as much as he hated to admit it, his brother was right. He couldn't let this sit. Granted, he was just trying to protect himself and Kasai should Mai have been lying, but he shouldn't have just pulled out a gun and demanded an explanation for everything. Naru sighed once more before standing up from the couch and walking to the bedroom.
"Mai." He said as he knocked on the door. It slid open without an answer. Naru walked in and heard water running.
"Mai?" he called again. No answer. Naru took another step towards the bathroom. He knocked on the door.
"Mai?" Mai froze at the sound of her name.
"What? She called.
Naru pushed the door open slightly, "I think we need to talk."
Mai realized the door was opening and slammed it shut. "Do you mind?" she asked.
"What?" Naru asked in reply.
"You don't just walk into a bathroom when someone else is in there. I could have been indecent for all you knew. And if that had been the case and you'd walked in on me you would have been in big trouble mister." Mai lectured.
How unfortunate that she didn't realize her lecture was causing very untimely and illicit images to rush to the forefront of the mind that belonged to the person who was on the other side of the door as her.
There was a pause before Naru said, "Well judging from the way you slammed the door on me I'd say it was the case and you're embarrassed about it."
Mai's cheeks flushed scarlet. True, she was only in her bra though the rest of her clothes were on, but that was because her tank top and jacket had gotten dusty from the dig.
"I am not." She snapped indignantly. On the other side of the door Naru suppressed a chuckle.
"Oh really?" he said in that holier-than-thou tone that Mai absolutely despised, "Let me guess, you're blushing right now, aren't you?"
"I just said I wasn't." Mai insisted.
"Said you weren't what? Indecent or embarrassed?" Naru wondered aloud.
"Get those mental pictures out of your head before I wipe that smug smirk off your face myself." Mai threatened.
Now Naru was shocked, Mai had wrenched the door open when she said that, and he couldn't believe she actually was indecent. He shook his head and kept his gaze on her face. Mai looked down and squeaked. She quickly shut the door again, and it nearly pegged Naru square in the nose.
"Why did you come in here?" Mai asked from behind the door.
"Simple, you were avoiding me." Naru answered.
"I was not" Mai protested, "I was cleaning up the dirt I got on myself."
"And you were avoiding me." Naru finished.
Mai put her shirt over her head; she guessed it was partially true. She opened the door, surprised at how close Naru was standing.
"Can you really blame me?" she asked him before shutting the do/or once more. "I mean, you pulled a gun on me…" she trailed off.
Naru stared at the door blankly; he was surprised that she was focusing on something as trivial as that. Okay, so maybe it wasn't so trivial but it was when compared to the past few months of hell Naru had had to endure. However, he was slightly thankful she was only worried about the gun, rather than being completely freaked out by what had happened in his life these past few months.
"Well, I apologize for it." Naru said as sincerely as he could while still remaining emotionless.
"Gee, you know I'd feel so much better if I could actually hear emotion in it." Mai said sarcastically.
"It might not make you feel any better, but I will admit that even if you were an enemy I couldn't have shot you." Naru told her.
"Really?" Mai asked as she opened the door. "Why?"
"There were no bullets in the gun." Naru told her bluntly.
"Seriously?" Mai asked skeptically.
"Yes. I took them out in the elevator; it was only a test of your intentions." Naru explained.
"Oh… so that's why you were fidgeting in the elevator earlier." Mai recalled what she'd seen.
"You were watching me?" Naru asked.
"Only out of the corner of my eye." Mai admitted, "But did you really not trust me enough to pull a gun on me and make me believe you were going to kill me?"
"Naturally." He answered, "Trust isn't something I just give away. Especially with my cousin's life on the line, so I needed to be sure you wouldn't kill me."
"I guess I can see where you're coming from. Trust might seem like it comes easy to me, but ever since the accident that took my birth parents away I haven't been able to trust people like I used to. But given the situation I have no choice but to trust you. I, I do trust you." Mai told him with a slight blush betraying her cheeks.
Naru was taken aback by her admission and wished to return one, but he would not lie to her anymore.
"Mai," he began. Mai held up a hand.
"You don't have to trust me Naru," she said, "all I'm asking is that you don't distrust me. Now, please let me finish."
"You were serious about cleaning up?" he asked her, "You didn't get that dirty."
"Unlike men, women will not just walk around topless. Especially not with strange men in the room." Mai explained.
Without giving him a chance to respond to that Mai shut the door on him again. Naru heard the water turn on and sighed. He went back to the living room and finished working the lid off the box. A few moments later he'd gotten it off and Mai walked back into the room, tossing a bundle of…something at him.
"There" she said to him, "is that enough?"
"Enough?" Naru asked, he looked down at what had hit him while he was examining the object. "Is that enough money?" he said as he put down the box and picked up the wad of cash. "There has to be at least five thousand dollars here and you're asking me if I need more?" he looked at the money and thumbed through it.
"What?" Mai asked as she pulled up a chair and sat beside him.
"I had anticipated you making a withdrawal at the bank earlier, however, I didn't expect you to take this much." Naru said in reply.
"Well, put it in your wallet, well some of it at least. Put the rest in a coat pocket or something." Mai told him.
"very well, but you should carry some on you as well." Naru replied as he split the money and held it out to her. Mai waved it off.
"I've got my own on me." She explained, "Now what was the thingy we found?"
"I'd hardly call it a thingy Mai." Naru replied as he held the box out to her.
Inside was a wooden slab carved to look like a person. It even had a face on it.
"okay, I might not know much about spirits or ghost hunting or whatever it is that you do, but I'm pretty sure this has something to do with it and it's not gonna be good." Mai said as she picked up the wooden doll.
"Hmm… I believe it might be a blank hitogata." Naru said as he took it from Mai and examined it for himself. He faintly smelled traces of citrus, but that could just be Mai, who still had the scent of the hotel soap on her.
"What's a hitogata?" Mai asked watching Naru place it back in the box.
"Mind numbingly simplified it's like a Japanese version of a voodoo doll. The way it works is actually quite simple. You simply carve one, inscribe the name of the person you want cursed, infuse some of your own energy into it, and then place it in the cursed person's possessions. Then the target starts to have abnormal 'accidents' that usually cause bodily harm to them." Naru explained.
"Well, I guess my hunch was right." Mai said in response.
"Hmm… yes, it was." Naru mused. "Are you sure you don't want any more of the money?"
"Umm, no, I'm good." Mai shifted uncomfortably. Mai Taniyama was a girl who didn't need to worry about money or work. And Mai hadn't been that girl for half a decade. It would definitely take some getting used to.
Mai's eyes flitted over to the gun lying on the table. She recalled the earlier incident and then looked over at Naru to see him putting five throwing knives back into his coat pocket.
"More than a gun, don't you think it's a little bit too much?" Mai asked him.
"I don't intend to use either of them unless we're in danger. Think of them as for your, rather our protection." Naru answered.
"Well, the gun won't do you any good if it isn't loaded." She replied distractedly.
Naru looked over at her, she'd almost been shot by him and yet she was now telling him to load the gun. This girl was definitely something else.
"Looks like you're only getting more attached Noll." Gene pointed out.
Naru waved off his brother's comment for the moment and watched Mai start the laptop up, again.
"You know now that I think about it, my PDA would have been so much better, but this thing has much more on it and better access wherever we go." Mai bit her bottom lip as she went into a pensive state.
"may I ask what you're looking for?" Naru said as he came up behind her.
"Looking for the new link." Mai answered. "We're supposed to get a new one since we found this thing."
Naru took a look at the screen and noticed something in the right hand corner.
"What's that?" he asked pointing to it.
Mai shrugged it off, "Just a new e-mail. Now where could that link be hiding…"
"Maybe you should check it." Naru suggested.
"Why?" Mai asked as she cocked her head at him.
"Just do it." Naru was now trying to keep the exasperation out of his voice at how dense this girl could be.
Reluctantly Mai clicked the little button. The e-mail in itself wasn't very alarming, but it was from an unknown sender and the subject was written as strike one.
Three strikes you get
Three mistakes you can make
But if there's more you choose to take
Their lives will go to waste
Strike One
Return from where you came
Hurry back to resume the game
Else it's your own time you waste
"What on earth is that supposed to mean?" Mai groaned as she stared at the message.
"It means that you were right all along." Naru answered. "We need to get back to the park."
"Okay, now explain this 'three strikes' thing to me mister know-it-all." Mai replied testily.
"Basically, we can make three mistakes, wrong turns, whatever you like to call them. But if we make any more than that Kasai and your parents will be killed by default." Naru bluntly replied.
After a brief call to the front desk, there was a taxi waiting for them when they got outside. The traffic wasn't too heavy but it still put Mai on edge. Mai glanced over at Naru and made a mental note that she was doing that a lot. His mask was airtight but his eyes gave him away. Hard, unblinking, and tinged with guilt.
"Naru," Mai's voice caught his attention. "Don't beat yourself up about this. If you hadn't got us out of there when you did, we could be dead. Thank you for saving my life, even if you threatened it again not even an hour later." Mai cracked a smile at this last part and looked Naru straight in the eye as she did so.
Naru didn't respond to her other than a simple nod of the head, despite his brother's protests that he could do better than that. The truth was that he never got a thank you for all the work he did aiding the FBI. Not from the people involved in the cases, not even from the other officers. It was nice, and that fuzzy feeling he's been trying to shove away ever since he met Mai was starting to come back again.
The driver announced that they had arrived at their destination and the duo quickly exited the vehicle.
"What should we do?" Mai asked, "head back to the dig maybe?"
"Probably the best idea, but keep a low profile just to be safe." Naru answered.
They moved back towards the area of the dig, but per Naru's instructions they walked by it. Finding another path they sat down on a bench. Mai pulled out the laptop and brought the page out.
"Hey, there's something here." She said clicking on a new link. "wait, isn't a new window supposed to pop up?" she looked over at Naru. All that had come up on the screen was a jumble of letters and numbers. At least, that's what they seemed like to her.
"Coordinates." Naru said under his breath. He pulled out his phone and punched them in.
They led to a small somewhat secluded part of the park. It would be easy enough to have uninterrupted privacy.
"Now what?" Mai asked looking at the message one more time. "All it says under those is 'bury it'."
"Well Mai, I believe we're supposed to bury it." Naru retorted. "But first, I want to take some pictures of it." When he said Mai skeptical face he quickly added, "Just for reference later."
Mai sighed and told him to do whatever. After pictures were of the hitogata were taken from every possible angle, Mai found a stick and dug a medium sized hole in the ground. Just deep enough to be undisturbed, shallow enough to be dug up quickly though.
Once that was accomplished Mai pulled up the website once more. Sure enough there was a new clue.
A hidden world, kept from the sun
It's a place where only people run
Going to cross to the wrong side of the track?
There's different rules there, so watch your backs
Below where the bell tolls
Is where you'll find out where to go.
"Seriously?" Mai asked the screen.
"It appears so." Naru answered and chanced a look at the girl next to him.
She was blanched, "Naru, I think it's my turn to be paranoid."
"Why is that?" Naru asked.
"I don't exactly feel comfortable being in a place where I was recently shot at. I feel to out in the open." She admitted.
"Alright," Naru said not bothering to try and convince her that the park was probably the safest place for her at the moment. "Where did you want to go?"
Mai was a little more at ease in the taxi as it made its way back to her apartment complex.
"I take it your very easy if you bring all guys to your house not even a day after you've met them." Naru commented.
"Don't make me hurt you." Mai threatened.
"I'd really love to see you try." Naru replied.
When they got to the door, Mai fumbled with her keys for a moment, then unlocked the door and removed her shoes. Naru watched her curiously for a moment before remembering that she had lived in Japan her whole life and that's what people did before entering a building.
"Make yourself comfortable." Mai said as she disappeared down a small hallway.
Naru looked at the walls of the brightly colored apartment. They were literally covered with photos. No matter what age was depicted Naru could always figure out who Mai was. In one of them she was latched onto the arm of another Japanese boy that looked her age and was giving him a kiss on the cheek while he smiled at the camera with cheeks the color of tomatoes. In another picture they were in front of NYU campus, both of them giving victory signs. Other photos revealed Mai and the boy with family and friends. The one that caught Naru's attention, was one of a teenage Mai with two people. One was a man with orangey-red hair pulled back into a ponytail with bang slightly hanging on either side of his face. The other was a woman with magenta hair that ran down to her waist. In the middle was Mai, and judging by the way Mai looked like neither, Naru guessed that they were her adoptive parents.
Speaking of Mai, whatever she was doing she was taking a long time. Naru decided to abandon the photo tour and look for her. He found her in what seemed to be her room. She was leaning over her desk and blocking the view of what she was doing. Her jacket lay on the bad and Naru got a very, for lack of a better word, good view of her figure. And as much as he didn't want to admit it, he felt something stirring in his chest at the sight of her.
"Look at that, my baby brother's got a little crush. How cute." Gene observed.
That snapped Naru out of his semi-trance. He entered the room.
"Your living conditions seem merely adequate for someone of your status." Naru commented.
Mai jumped, "Geez Naru, don't scare me like that." She complained.
"It's better you're on your guard." Naru replied as he looked around.
Mai flushed before thanking god that she'd thoroughly cleaned her room yesterday so nothing was lying out in the open.
"What are you doing?" Naru's voice broke Mai out of her short reverie.
"Just transferring everything from my laptop to my PDA." She answered, "It'll be easier to carry around than the laptop. I'm also making copies of everything we've gotten so far."
"Very smart." Naru replied, "I didn't think you had it in you." Mai frowned at him.
"I hate you sometimes, you know that?" she asked him.
"I do now." Naru replied. "By the way, this seems like a very big apartment for someone who lives alone."
"I don't live alone." Was Mai's answer, "Yasu lives here too. That reminds me, I should call him and tell him I can't do lunch today."
"You got a text from him earlier." Naru told her, "He said that he couldn't make lunch either."
Mai shot him a look, "when?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice that spelled trouble.
"When we were at the park the first time." Naru answered.
"And you didn't tell me because?"
"It wasn't important at the moment."
"So rather than tell me I had a message you just opened and read it without telling me?" Mai was fuming now.
Before Naru could answer Mai's PDA beeped to let her know the upload was complete. Naru thought she'd let it go but a pillow to the back of his head told him different. It hadn't been thrown hard but it put Naru off his balance for a split second. Why could she catch him off guard?
"Because you like her." Gene answered.
Was it true? If it was it scared him.
"Come on." Mai said as she stood in the doorway, "we need to figure out this clue."
Naru just stood there for a moment. Mai rolled her eyes before grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the room.
"Would you like coffee?" Mai asked as she sat him down on the couch.
"Tea is fine but if you don't have any coffee will do." Naru replied. "And I thought you didn't like coffee."
"I don't but Yasu drinks so much I swear he has blood made of coffee." Mai said from the kitchen.
"How close are you guys?" Naru asked.
"Pretty much been joined at the hips since freshman year. He dated an old roommate of mine but it didn't work out. But Yasu and I stayed close anyways." Mai replied.
"Close?" Naru asked once more.
"The closest." Mai answered not thinking anything of it.
Naru kept his features schooled, but he couldn't fight off the sharp jab of jealousy he felt for a man he hadn't even met.
"We should reread the clue." Naru said as Mai came back with a cup of tea from her private stash.
"I have nothing at the moment." Mai told him.
"Why am I not surprised?" Naru replied. He regretted it slightly when Mai slugged him in the arm.
"Knock it off." She told him. "I do have a few ideas but they all seem so unlikely. That's all."
"Well you should keep trying, in the meantime I'll send these pictures to a coworker." Naru told her.
When people would ask him why he liked to spend so much time in his basement, he would tell them he liked to keep busy. That and that it was a 'lab' not a basement. Whatever it was, it was certainly impressive. TV screens and monitors took up a corner of the large underground room , while a large computer was the forefront of operations. That and a bookcase completely filled with books on the paranormal were built into the wall floor to ceiling.
"Good morning master." The computer spoke in a smooth woman-like tone. "You have a new message."
"What?" the boy asked the screen. He had developed a special program that only let the utmost important messages make it into his inbox. Needless to say, he didn't get a lot of mail. However, pulling up the message proved an entirely different matter.
The message sounded like someone he knew. Examine this and confirm what it is. The boy clicked on the link attached. His eyes widened when he saw what it was.
"Dammit!"
okay quick favor to ask besides reveiwing, if anyone knows the names of the grumpy vice principal and the suicide kid from the case where we first meet yasuhara please tell me either in your review or a pm. thank you!