*** How long... Has it been... Since I last... [CRIES INTERNALLY / EXTERNALLY]. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, am sorry for the super duper really late update! Am not going to leave this fic I'm gonna finish it I swear on everything that is good and yellow and Kagamine! Special thanks to Rietto for dragging me back to this fic.. And if you don't see an update of this fic within a month she's the one to blame ok /flies Thanks for all.. The reviews and favorites and follow though, really, really, really m(_)m ***

Chapter 15: What To Do

Over the years Kaito had known Mayu as many things. Psychotic, sure. Irritating, sure. A sadist, sure. The list could go on forever, but what adjective could he use to describe her request this time?

"Do you think you could do that? Return this mirror to its' previous form?," she said to Len one more time with a curious tone; more or less the same tone a child would use.

Unreasonable.

That's right, the word Kaito was looking for… It was unreasonable. Of course, knowing Mayu, it shouldn't be all that surprising. A part of him didn't expect Mayu to just give Len what he wanted just like that. Sure, she had made him suffer more than life had ever offered him before, still, ever since Mayu had started 'teasing' Len, Kaito hadn't seen her…

'Satisfied'.

Kaito shuddered.

"…What?" Kaito could see the hesitation in Len's eyes, her request, her unreasonable request sounded like a joke. Return the broken mirror to its' previous form? It's not humanly possible to do that at all! Even if he managed to take all the pieces together, 'magically' glue them together somehow, it still wouldn't look anything like its' previous form, it was just impossible.

So from that situation, Len had two options in front of him. Do as she told, or do nothing. If he does what he's told, it's useless. It's a waste of time, it's pointless, and what are the odds of Mayu keeping her promise? On the other hand if he does nothing… There's no telling what would Mayu do then.

"Yep. You heard me, I want you to return the mirror to its previous form! It sounds impossible I know… I bet it might take a while for you to finish this so…" Mayu grabbed Kaito's arm and forcefully dragged Kaito out of the room "Let's leave him be for now, he needs to concentrate! Once we're back I hope to see some progress from you! Don't disappoint me~."

With a click Mayu locked the door to the room, took a deep breath, and walked away from her office with a wide smile.

"You know, I heard if you break a mirror there's seven years of bad luck waiting for you in the future." Kaito caught up with her and matched his pace. There was no time to process everything that had happened in that room, he was more concerned on what would happen next.

"Ehh, that sounds bad." It didn't look like she was worried about it at all to him. With her smile and all.

"So…" Kaito scratched the back of his head. "You do know it's pretty much impossible for him to finish that request of yours, right? Eventually, or rather, as we speak, he's thinking of breaking down that door and look for that girl."

"I'm not an idiot!" Mayu laughed it off.

"You could've just tied him up and put him in one of your cells." Crap. Why and how did Kaito let that thought slip through? Locked in Mayu's office, as terrifying as it sounds, is far better than being tied up in a cell.

"A maze is more fitting, but… He was able to solve it faster than I thought unfortunately. I don't think I want him in a cell. He might get help. From who, I don't really know." Kaito gulped hearing that. "Ah, why so tense? Let me change the subject, then. Remember our one hour bet we couldn't make because he arrived far, far too early?"

"Yes, we talked about it less than ten minutes ago, it is still fresh in my head."

"Let's make another bet… Oh, but first, I need to find a knife, or a dagger, or a sword, or anything sharp!" Kaito didn't like the sound of that one bit. He couldn't imagine how a combination of 'a bet with Mayu' and 'sharp objects' could ever be a good thing. No, it couldn't ever be a good thing. "We're going to make a bet about that girl! What's her name again? Rin, right?"

"Are you going to skin her alive in front of me?" He didn't even know what Mayu had in store for Rin but he didn't like it. If he could just stall her for a few minutes… But then what? So far the only one who could save both Rin and Len was him. "Count me out, I have a weak spot for girls."

"Don't be silly, I'm not going to skin her. I'm wearing my pretty dress today. People who stain my pretty dress dies and I don't want her to die yet."

"So, you're not going to kill her?"

"No, no, I'm not going to be the one who'll get dirty today." Mayu stopped and twirled around, facing Kaito. "You are."

'They've been gone for a while, no one's guarding the door… Should I leave now?' Len peeked through the keyhole. He was expecting a trap set up somewhere in front of the door somehow, but that was just him being paranoid.

He wasn't sure what Mayu was planning, everything about her actions so far seemed so… Odd. Of course, Mayu was to put it bluntly weird and Len had heard and seen her done weirder things than leaving him alone unguarded, but this case was special. Why did she put him on that 'maze'? Why did she lock him there with an impossible request? He just couldn't connect the dots together. All possibilities must be considered… Including the possibility of 'she's doing this just because she wants to.'

'After a little search here and there around her office, it turns out she has a spare key so… Technically I'm not locked in this room. Does she know about this? Is she doing this on purpose? Then… Why bother locking at all?' There was the other possibility of her forgetting the fact that she had a spare key in her office; no psychopath is perfect.

Or... she's trying to hide the fact that she left another key from someone else.

Namely, Kaito.

But... Why?

'I shouldn't underestimate her.' Was the only conclusion Len could come up with so far. It's possible that Mayu was really underestimating him. Or she really did forget about the spare key.

But still. It's also possible that she's playing games with him AND Kaito.

Dangerous girl.

Len walked around Mayu's office again for the umpteenth time. There were no drawers he hadn't opened, no 'documents' he hadn't read, no luggage he hadn't opened. Everything in that room… Was conveniently useless. Aside from the key of course. How he ended up in the room with both Mayu and Kaito present, that too was suspiciously convenient. It's like he was expected to be there. It fits too perfectly together Len wanted to cross out the 'she's making a mistake' possibility. Yet… It still didn't make sense.

Len sighed and grabbed the spare key from the table. It was too early to conclude anything, or to predict anything.

'Screw it, I need to find Rin.'

"Knife… Knife…" Kaito could hear Mayu mumble from the storage room while he waited for her anxiously by the door. "Hey, are you close with that girl?"

"I don't know her at all." That was the perfect chance for him to make a run for it. Whatever Mayu had in store for Rin which involved him, Kaito wanted no part of it at all. Would that really be the best thing to do, though? To run away? No. He felt like running away but he didn't feel like that was the smartest thing to do in that situation. "So, hey, what do you want me to do once we're there?"

"Oh found it!" Mayu said gleefully and rushed to Kaito's side. She carried a butcher knife with her, the sight of it made Kaito gulped at the endless possibilities of... Torture in general. "Ah, I'm shivering! Come on, let's go, let's go!" She blushed a little bit and led the way to Rin's cell.

"Since I'll be using that later, why don't you let me hold it instead? That… Butcher knife looks really heavy." Kaito forced a smile.

'I swear the second that butcher knife's in my hands I'll chop off your head with it.' He said in his head. Of course he wasn't going to do it, Mayu's a dangerous person. If someone could kill Mayu; and Kaito knew she had lots of enemies and zero number of friends, it would've been done long ago. 'The fact that she could still stand there in the middle of a dangerous zone full of murderers and assassins in broad day light with no aliases or covers…'

"Oh, I changed my mind. You're not all that close to her anyway, right?" He couldn't believe Mayu actually took him seriously when he said he wasn't close to Rin. As much as Kaito wanted to release a sigh of relief he couldn't do that in front of her. "I have another plan in mind… But there's really one thing that's bothering me right now."

"Share your trouble, I might help."

"Ah never mind, it doesn't matter. Let's just hurry it up!" Mayu fastened her pace. "I just… Really, really, can't wait! See? That's the cell door right there!"

Kaito recognized that room… That wasn't a prison cell, it was the interrogation room; and Rin was in there. What was he supposed to do? Nothing? Should he just… Go with the flow and improvise? Whatever was going to happen in that room couldn't go smoothly, it just couldn't and…

'I hate this… I'm so useless right now. Think Kaito, think!' Mayu grabbed the door handle and opened the metal door with a loud creaking sound.

"Kaito, come in here! Look at her she's such a cutey!"

'Damn it.' He peeked inside the room for a second and entered the foul smelling interrogation room. It was a room for two, with a round wooden table in the middle of the room and two chairs facing right in front of each other, from that angle Kaito couldn't see Rin's face directly, and the lighting in that room, the dim light at least, made the atmosphere felt intense (because Mayu's presence wasn't enough apparently).

"Why are you so shy? Come stand here next to me! Hey Rin, do you know this person?" Kaito took a few steps forward and stood next to Mayu. If the situation had been different and their lives weren't in danger he'd hug her, because really, Len wasn't the only one who had missed her. At first glance she didn't look like she had any decent… Sleep, food, or… Happiness in general in days. It made him want to hug her more and tell her that he's there to help.

Some way.

Hopefully.

"….." Rin stared at Kaito, surprised of course. He wanted to tell her she shouldn't say yes to that question… He shook his head and mouthed the word no. "No, I don't know him."

"I see..." Mayu put the butcher knife in the middle of the table, and put both her hands on her lap. "My name is Mayu, and this man here is Kaito."

"Hi." Kaito said shortly. In the end all he could do was avoid her gaze. He'd been through worse situation in his life… Probably, if he recalled hard enough. In the meantime, Rin looked pale white and scared, she couldn't take her eyes off the butcher knife on the table. "Why don't you tell us what you've been doing the past few weeks, Rin? If you tell us your story, we'll tell you ours!"

"…There's… Not much to tell." Rin said weakly. "Most of the time… I just sleep."

"Oh, you're so cute! No need to sound so scared, oh, hey, your friend Len is in this building too!" Obviously that caught everyone's attention. Rin's jaw dropped and Mayu could see she was ready to take the bait. "Say Kaito, what do you think his condition is right now?"

"He's not in his best shape, not super. I mean, today's not his best day." He answered vaguely.

"Hahahh, you're sugarcoating it too much Kaito!" Mayu laughed. "He's dying."

"…Dying?" Rin turned to Kaito. "Is she telling the truth? Is he really dying?"

"Yes, you see… He's dying! I injected him with this poison a week or two before, and he's gonna die real soon." She suddenly paused. "Oh wait, why are we talking about that detective right now? Let's talk about you! Why don't you tell me more about yourself? Can't you tell? This is an interrogation room! I should be the one asking you questions."

"But… Len…" Rin was panicking. Just a second or two before her eyes was filled with despair, no doubt because of the knife mostly, her mood changed drastically once Mayu mentioned Len… And put his condition in the worst way possible. Which was the truth, technically.

"Share your story and we'll share ours, right?" Kaito added, trying his best to sound nonchalant and let his worry shows. He didn't know if his excuse earlier that he had soft spot for girls could keep Mayu from being suspicious after all.

"I…. I've been in this prison cell for a while, a-"

"No, no, I don't care about that anymore! Tell me more about yourself. Your parents, your home, your friends, tell me about them." Mayu quickly intervened. That's right… Kaito remembered back at the ship Mayu wanted to know more about Rin, because 'somehow' no one was able to collect information about Rin's background at all.

"I… Used to live in an inn run by a friend of mine. I lost my memory so… I don't know anything about my parents, where I came from… I only know my name and age."

"In other words… You don't have a story for us, right? That settles it then, it means we don't have a story to give to you. Simple as that."

"That's not fair, I really did lose my memory! Can't you tell me anything about Len? Where is he? Can I see him?"

"I locked him in my office, but I left a spare key there so I'm sure he's out there looking for you as we speak right now. Oh, he's dying, he has wounds all over his body, he can't think straight, and he's out there looking for you. That's so cute!" Mayu smiled and grabbed the butcher knife. It was clear as day and she could see her own reflection on it. "I wish there was a man out there who would sacrifice himself for me… That'd be great. A charming prince…"

"Technically you have tons of men working under you who'd sacrifice their lives so…" Kaito shrugged, although inside he's screaming in agony. "You have a bunch of prince charmings."

He didn't know that.

Len could get out? And Mayu didn't tell him?

Alarm was ringing inside his head.

"True, but they do it for the money and out of fear that I might punish them." Mayu sighed. "I underestimated him before, I don't want to do it again. Kaito, be a dear and guard the door for me? In the off chance that somehow he managed to find us, to find this room, I want you to stop him. I don't want him to step one foot in this room, I want to spend some time alone with Rin here."

"Why bother?" He was beginning to think maybe it would've been better for him to be involved in what they were doing… At least then he could keep an eye on Rin somehow. "She doesn't know anything and I'm pretty sure your Intel knows more than Rin herself. What else is there to talk about? Is it girl talk or something?"

"Hnn… Well, you're right. This conversation won't last more than an hour. Ah, it's not really a conversation. I just want to make a deal with Rinny over here. Oh, Rinny! That's such a cute nickname, I think I'll call you that from now on!" Mayu laid down the butcher knife on the table for the second time and smiled. "You don't mind that, do you Rinny?"

"….I don't mind at all." Rin gulped. "What is it that you want to offer me? The deal…?"

"So as I told you before, your little prince is dying. I injected him with poison, and I happen to have the antidote right here!" Mayu took out a small vessel from her pocket and put it next to the butcher knife on the table. There… The antidote Kaito and Len had been looking for. There really was an antidote?

'Something… Doesn't feel right here.' He could just take the antidote and make a run for it… No, he couldn't leave Rin like that. There was hope there, the three of them could somehow make it out alive in one piece.

With Len still living and breathing.

But... it's Mayu...

"I'll give this antidote to you, I'm going to let you meet him, I'll let you spoon feed him the antidote in the most adorable way possible, and you two could waltz out of this building with a souvenir, but in exchange…"

'…No, don't buy it Rin. She's not merciful enough of a human being to do that. The antidote thing might be true, the spoon feeding might be true, but she's not going to let you leave here alive.' Kaito couldn't take his eyes off the antidote at all… It was within his grasp, it was so close…

"In exchange, I want you to cut off your right arm for me."