Day 1: 14:53
Naru
When Naru woke up, he realized a few things right away: he was cold, really cold, it was dark, and something heavy was wrapped around his wrists. His head was splitting in pain as well. After a minute of groaning trying to get his eyes to focus, he was able to look around to get his bearings. He was on a large bed, the only one in the room. He noticed a couple of large cabinets near a side door. Looking through it, he noticed a bathroom. Hardly anything in it except a toilet and a sink. A large wooden door barricaded the bathroom for the room he was currently in. He looked down at his wrists and noticed they were bound with confining iron shackles.
There was another door, leading presumably to another area of a building. If he was even in a building he wasn't sure. It was big, heavy-looking, and made of iron. Looking down from that and adjusting his sight, he noticed someone else in the room with him. Mai was lying curled up in the center of the cement floor curled up in on herself, her back facing him.
"Mai," he groaned as he tried to get off the bed without the room spinning out of control. He felt nauseous. He all but collapsed by her side. His hands clanked as he reached out his hands. His left hand went to the back of her head, and the right went to her right shoulder. He rolled her onto her back and she groaned.
Anger pulsed through him faster than he thought possible. Mai's normally beautiful, smiling face was now showing evidence of a fight. A large welt was forming on her left cheek. A ½ inch gash was bleeding in the center of the welt. Also, her right eye was swelling with a purple bruise forming under it. He tried to gently caress her face with his right hand but drew back when she whimpered in pain.
'Whoever did this is going to die,' Naru thought.
At this point, his feelings for Mai had gone even beyond friendship. He had been lingering on this feeling for quite some time, but he had never been too fond of exploring his emotions about the girl. She truly had changed him for the better. The way she would get flustered when he teased her, the way she would stand up to him, unafraid to speak her mind. She reminded him of his humanity again. Ever since his brother died, and he had lost the connected link he had with him, he had felt so incredibly empty and alone inside. Mai had filled that with warmth and a need to keep going. To do better. For her.
Now she's lying here on the damn floor of wherever the hell they are. Chained up in a cold empty room converted into a cell. Mai's face is beaten and for what purpose Naru isn't sure. Naru was sure of one thing though, someone was going to die.
"Mai. Mai wake up," he whispered as calmly as he could manage.
Mai's face scrunched in pain, but slowly she opened her eyes. "Naru...?" she groaned, "Where are we?" She looked around for a moment, and suddenly her eyes widened in worry. "Lin!" she cried and jolted upright. The pain was instantaneous and she hissed and then whimpered in pain as she held her head. It was then that she noticed she was cuffed.
"Idiot," Naru murmured. He tried to hold her face in his hands to get a better idea of the injuries. "Lin will be fine," he tried to sound confident, but even he wasn't so sure. "but what happened to you? If you were beaten into unconsciousness you could have a concussion."
Mai lowered her hands down and looked at the cuffs. "The man that shot Lin...tried to shoot me as I ran away. I threw boiling soup at him. Another large man kept punching me until the other guy told him to take me too," Mai explained tears threatening to spill from her eyes.
Naru smirked at the idea of Mai doing that to someone. "Smart move on my part to have soup today huh?"
"Are you trying to take the credit?" Mai challenged, "I was the-"
She stopped as they heard the sound of a tumbler being unlocked on the heavy iron door. Naru threw his restrained arms over Mai's head and pulled her close to his chest. Naru said nothing, even when he could feel Mai start to blush. His heart skipped a beat when he felt Mai's hands come up to his and hold them closer to her chest.
The door creaked open and in walked the blond man who had been their "potential client." The middle-aged muscular man looked at the two, scowled, and stepped to the side. Behind him was the raven-haired supposed leader who had shot Lin. He now had his right hand and arm bandaged, and a sling over his shoulder. He had a gauze on his face as well, to which Naru quietly chuckled. He came in and stepped to the other side of the door opposite the blond man. Shortly after he stepped in a woman stepped in. She was much smaller than the two men on the sides of her and she honestly looked out of place. She had a petite body, brown hair pulled back into a French braid, wearing a black spaghetti strap t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and black flat-heeled boots. The tight clothes on her revealed muscles on her that made her look like a fitness model.
She eyed the two; her face went from stoic to confusion, to beyond pissed off. "Akio! Get your ass over here! Now!" she yelled.
Footsteps thudded, and a third man came in. A much older wrinkled-faced man in a three-piece suit. He did not look amused by this, "You called, Alaina?"
'Alaina? She's definitely not from Japan,' Naru thought.
"I did...I thought you said the team you sent was the best in your division. Ones who could get the job done?" she asked.
"They are Alaina," Akio replied impassively, "and they did."
"No..." she said with a little mockery in her voice while walking towards the two. Naru held onto Mai tighter. She smirked, "Satoshi? Who were the two people you were supposed to bring me?" she asked.
The raven-haired man who was Satoshi stood up a bit taller, "Ma'am you asked us to bring you Oliver Davis and his omnyoji bodyguard Koujo Lin," he said.
Naru's eyes widened. 'No, there's no way they could've found out,' he thought.
The woman walked up to Satoshi with a glide in her step that just exuded confidence and leadership. "Does that bitch over there even look like a 27-year-old Chinese omnyoji to ya?" she asked, with such calmness that the atmosphere felt heavy with the silence that followed. "Or does that look like a fuckin' 16-year-old, Japanese schoolgirl?"
"Ma'am that fuckin' bitch burned me! I wanted to teach that cunt over there exactly who she was messin' with," he snarled at Mai. He looked like he wanted to charge at Mai holding nothing back.
"And who exactly did she fuck with? You are nothing. Satoshi, you should be less concerned about your arm, and more concerned about what I'm going to be doin' wit'cha." she said, her accent starting to become more evident in her speech that she is not from here.
Naru felt something wet hit his hands. Glancing at Mai's face who was transfixed on the scene in front of her, he noticed silent tears pouring down from her eyes and onto his hands. Almost as if she didn't even realize she was crying. He pulled her closer to himself and leaned in next to her ear.
"It's going to be ok Mai, we're going to get out of here," he whispered reassuringly.
Mai couldn't help but take in a deep shuddering breath that she didn't know she needed. He gripped her tighter and hoped they wouldn't turn on them again. Thankfully they didn't seem to notice.
"So tell me, what happened to the omnyoji?" Alaina asked rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"He was shot ma'am." the blond man had said, "He informed them that the police were called, and Satoshi pulled his gun. He charged at him, and his gun discharged."
"Did he now...and you made sure that he was dead before you decided to bring this girl here right?" she asked Satoshi.
"He-" Satoshi stuttered, "h-he was shot-"
"With the police inbound you dumb sack of shit!" the woman screamed, "Our best chance at using Oliver Davis and ya had one job! Bring me him and the omnyoji. Ya couldn't even do that! Ya were beaten by a fuckin' 16! Year old! Girl!" With every final word she screamed, she stepped towards Mai, getting in her face.
Mai shrank into Naru's chest, twisting to try and bury her face into his shoulder. Naru glared at the woman with a look that dared her to try and take another step forward. Objects in the rooms started to shake as he started to lose control. 'Fuck! Be calm, be calm, be calm...' he thought to himself. This is the second time he would lose his cool because of this girl. He really did love her.
Alaina stepped back and sighed, "That's three failures you have given me Satoshi, and I am very disappointed. Ya promised me a human duo weapon, and ya brought me half of one. A good half mind you, but this half will die the second he uses it to its full potential. Not exactly good for a showing."
Alaina made her way back to the door where Akio still stood looking rather unamused. She held out a hand, and he reached behind and pulled something out. It was another handgun and a clip. She loaded the clip in, pressed the bolt release, and turned the weapon off of 'safe'.
"I am getting to be pretty pissed off right now. So tell me, Oliver, does your girlfriend here have any psychic powers of note? Or did you just hire her for eye candy?" Alaina asked.
Naru glared and shifted Mai to his side, "Are you seriously implying what I think you are?" he asked.
"You're the genius, you figure it out."
Naru paused and looked down at Mai. The poor girl was shaking in fear, tears had soaked his shirt, and here they were one wrong answer away from certain death. A death without meaning, almost as bad as his parent's death. He knew what they wanted from him, from both of them. It might kill them both, but at least they would die trying to get out. Not being used the way this woman wants to use us.
"She's a latent psychic with growing powers into astral projection. With her training still ongoing, I believe she is well on her way to becoming an expert medium" he answered honestly. Mai looked up at him with wide, questioning eyes.
Alaina looked genuinely surprised, "Really? That is most interesting. Did ya hear that Satoshi? A potential medium. Ya may not have fucked this mission ten ways til Sunday!" she said smiling and walking towards him.
He smiled halfheartedly, "See? Something good came out of this! So you don't have to kill me, ma'am."
She looked confused, "Why would I not do that? You're just not going to die painfully."
With that, she put the gun under his chin, and without a moment's hesitation, she pulled the trigger. The echo off the walls still reverberated in Naru's ears even after the man had fallen to the ground. His head bleeding out and he slumped looking empty-eyed at Naru and Mai. Mai tried to shift to look at what had happened but Naru pressed her head and face back into his shoulder.
"Don't look, Mai, for god's sake, don't look," he pleaded.
Alaina looked a little less stressed, "Ahh that is a bit better. Akio, have someone come in and clean up the mess, will ya?" She walked up to Naru and Mai, "I'm getting tired of speaking Japanese," she said switching over to English. She had a very thick Irish accent Naru had noted. "I know you can understand me, Oliver Davis, so listen carefully. Ya said that with enough time and practice, ya little girlfriend here would become a successful medium. Consider this basic training. Ya have about two weeks, 15 days to be precise. She will learn how to channel your PK and use it effectively without major injury or death. Do ya understand?"
"Why? Why even do this? What do hope to gain from this?" Naru asked.
"What I hope to gain is a fuck ton of money. Your name is worth a lot in this world, and your powers, well that's worth triple in the market I work in. I have a lot of interested buyers, and I promised them you and your PK buffer. Ya have the rest of today and tonight to bring her up to speed on how to channel your PK. Training starts tomorrow," she explained with an oddly calm tone for one who just killed a man in cold blood.
"If I use Mai as a buffer she could die!" Naru protested angrily.
She leaned in closer, "Well then, for her sake, I hope you are a good teacher."
With that, she got up and walked towards the blond man, "Katsuo," she went back to Japanese, "undo their bindings and get these two an MRE each and something to drink. They're gonna be needing their strength."
The woman and two men left, and soon a third man came to get the body of Satoshi and haul him away. The man came back to unlock Naru's and Mai's cuffs, then threw in a couple of towels over the pool of blood and soon closed the heavy iron door. The last thing Mai and Naru heard before the silence overcame them both was the sound of a lock tumbler locking them in the room.
