Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

HIRO

The rustle of someone moving wakes me as I realize Maddox is reaching over me for my phone.

“What’s it say?” I ask.

“That Hikaru is doing well. He’s awake and alert.”

I can feel the tension leaving me. I had feared the worst when he picked up my phone. “Oh, that’s great. It was close… it had to have been close.”

“I know,” Maddox says as he sets the phone back down. He kisses my forehead. “It was too close. But he wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for you.”

“And you,” I inform him. I notice Reggie and Natalie, but the third ghost in the room isn’t Keaton, it’s the grumpy man who is… playing chess with Natalie?

Huh?

“Are you winning?” I ask, really feeling like the man should lose just because his attitude is shit. “Natalie is playing chess with the grumpy ghost.”

“Ah, I see. Hopefully she wins, then,” Maddox responds.

“We’re playing strip chess. If you can’t tell…” Natalie says as I realize she’s missing her shirt, “I am not winning.”

“Why are you stripping?” I ask. “You make him strip. He’s mean. And why did you choose to take off your shirt before your socks?”

“I don’t want my feet to get cold.”

“What are you mumbling about?” Maddox asks.

“I just want to tell the grumpy ghost that I’d kick his ass at chess,” I declare.

“Do you even know how to play chess?” Maddox asks.

“No.”

“I think you’re just rambling. Get some sleep.”

“Yeah…” I drift back off, and even though I hear people moving throughout the house at one point, it’s not enough to fully wake me, and I fall back asleep.

When I wake this time, I can see the sunlight creeping in. My head feels a bit foggy, but it no longer hurts, so I’m thrilled about that. Maddox brushes my hair back before kissing me softly.

“You feel a little better?”’

“Yeah. Any more news on Hikaru?”

“Last I heard he was still doing well. You saved his life, Hiro. There’s no doubt that he would have died without you.”

Those words slowly settle in. “ We saved his life. I mean… maybe I got us there, but you brawled the man. Which—if we subtract Hikaru bleeding and all that other seriousness—was really amazing. You’re a good fighter. I only know how to use nunchucks.”

That makes Maddox laugh. “Didn’t we already verify that you do not actually know how to use them?”

“My mom used them once while I was in the womb, Maddox. She bestowed the knowledge onto me. She also nearly blinded my father with them, which is why she said her power was too great for this world.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“I bet you’d be hot with nunchucks. You’d also be hot without them.”

“Ooh, like a kitten in one hand and nunchucks in the other,” Natalie says.

“Yesssss. Kitten in one hand, weapon in the other.”

“Why do I have a kitten?” Maddox asks.

“You’re protecting it from the greatest evil. And everyone knows that hot people are even hotter when holding a teeny kitten.”

“Are you sure your head’s okay?”

“No?”

Maddox laughs and kisses me again, which makes me smile. “Alright, let’s get up and face the day.”

“I’m facing it, alright. Can you tell it not to be a little bitch today?”

“I can try,” Maddox says. “I would say something like ‘What’s the chance of running into two attackers back-to-back?’ and then I remembered I was talking to you and quickly changed my mind.”

“Noooo. I don’t want to be a bad guy magnet.”

“I wanna be a Keaton magnet,” Reggie says. “He can be the magnetic field in my bed.”

I pretend like any of that makes sense. “Where is Keaton?”

“Being nosy with the police. He said something like ‘Hiro’s sleeping face is boring; I’m going to go watch the police.’ And I said I could also go, but I was spooning you at the time and anytime I tried to move, you’d whine, so I stayed.”

“I didn’t whine when you tried leaving me. That’s nonsense,” I grumble.

“You definitely whined about something,” Maddox says. “You’d just be lying there happily and then grumble and then be happy again and then grumble.”

“Oh no,” I whisper.

“What?”

“I… I was whining whenever Reggie stopped spooning me.”

Maddox laughs. “That is concerning.”

“With that disgusting taste in my mouth, let’s go,” I say as I get up and put on my clothes.

Once we’re both dressed, we head downstairs and get our teeth brushed before we venture into the living room where Rina looks up at us.

“Good morning,” I say.

“Morning,” she replies.

“Have you heard anything else about Hikaru?”

“He’s doing good and is very alert. Yumi just got up a few minutes ago as well. Are you two hungry? I’ll make you something to eat.”

“I saw a bakery down the road. What if I just picked us up something so you don’t have to cook? I think we all had a long night,” Maddox says.

She hesitates. “That’s a good idea, but I’ll get it.”

“Of course not, my treat. Please, allow me.”

“How about we all walk together?” she suggests. “Let me go get Yumi.” And off she goes, not allowing any more debate.

Maddox and I stand there for a few minutes before the two of them come downstairs.

“Let’s go,” Rina says.

“Okay,” Maddox agrees. “But only if you’re sure, since I really don’t mind getting it.”

“No, a walk will do us good.”

“You doing alright, Yumi?” I ask as I step outside just as my grandma is coming up the path. I find that it still feels weird calling her “Grandma” since I barely know her, but it did make me feel good how much she was doting on me last night.

“Yeah, thank you.”

Rina speaks to my grandma for a moment before she joins in on the walk. I guess we’re all going and there’s nothing we can do about it.

We walk a bit as Yumi blatantly stares at me. It’s quite obvious that she’s fixated on me and maybe even more obvious that I’m trying to pretend that I don’t notice.

“That girl is going to walk into a lamppost, she’s so fixated on you,” Natalie says.

“Would I be a bad person if I laugh?” Reggie asks.

“You’d be a bad person if you didn’t.”

“They said if we were even a few minutes later, he would have bled to death,” Yumi says. “That if Hiro hadn’t put compression on his wound when he arrived… if you were just a little later… he would have died.”

“I’m glad we could do something,” I respond.

“The man who stabbed him was my friend… ex -friend, Ren. He was… I met him in college, and he seemed like a really nice guy. And… all of my other friends stopped hanging around me and I didn’t understand why. Ren knew how to say all the right things… until I realized that he was manipulating me. He was spreading lies to my friends, stalking me, and trying to drive me away from everyone else. I didn’t realize it until he tried drugging me at a party one night and Hikaru caught him. And then… it started to fall into place that all of the horrible shit happening around me was because of what he was doing. I… I was in a bad place, but Hikaru was super helpful in my recovery. He was sweet and kind and knew what to say, and I was so afraid of making the same mistake again, but he was patient with me.

“Hikaru told the police last night that Ren began harassing him about six months ago. At first it was just… texts or messages. And then he caught up to him after class one day and told him some shit about me cheating on him. Hikaru never told me… he said he didn’t want to upset me but that he didn’t believe a thing Ren said. But why did he wait until it got to this point?”

“I wonder if it went on so long that he just… didn’t think it would escalate like this,” Maddox says. “It’s weird to say, but sometimes even threats get old.”

“Maybe… I just can’t believe I put him in danger like that.”

“ You did not put him in danger,” Maddox assures her. “You are a victim here. You cannot place blame on yourself for something like this. You had nothing to do with it. You can’t control what that man does. You can’t control that Hikaru didn’t seek legal or police help with this. Don’t blame yourself. While it definitely wasn’t good, it could have turned out so much worse.”

She bows her head. “I know… and it would have if you two weren’t here. If it had happened just days prior… he’d have been dead. If Hiro…” Her attention turns to me, and I feel the spotlight on me. “How did you know?”

“I just… I… don’t… I don’t know,” I settle on. “He was acting paranoid earlier. When we were walking to the restaurant, he was looking behind him… and I just had a bad feeling when we were eating dinner.”

Yumi doesn’t seem to know how to take that. “But you knew where he was. I never told you where he was.”

I don’t want to tell them. I don’t want to see their reactions. Their suspicion. Anything. I know not everyone is as open as my family was to learn about it. I’m stuck with their scrutinizing looks, clearly wanting an answer to a question I don’t want to tackle. I’m running through excuses in my mind, but I know that none of them will satisfy them.

Thankfully, Yumi’s phone rings, saving me from this question I can’t find the answer to. Since she’s speaking Japanese, I don’t understand any of the call, but she eventually hangs up.

“That was the police. They were hoping the three of us could come back in. They had a couple of questions.”

“Oh yeah, of course,” Maddox says. “We can go right now.”

Rina waves that off. “No, let’s get some food and then I’ll drive you. We’re right here,” she insists as she ushers us inside.

I can tell they want to question me more, but no one does, so we sit down for a moment to eat before we walk back to the house and Rina drives us to the station.

Maddox’s head is on a swivel as we walk in, looking every which way, probably trying to see what’s so different about this station compared to the one he works at.

Yumi speaks to someone and then we’re taken to a room where Officer Nakamura, the officer from last night, comes in to speak with us. “Thank you for coming in. We wanted to go over a couple of things, if that’s alright?”

“Of course,” Maddox says and when the officer asks, Maddox goes over the scene with him again. I’m sure he doesn’t need to hear this story again, which tells me there’s something else they’re questioning.

“So when you were facing him, what made him jerk back?” Officer Nakamura asks.

Maddox shakes his head. “I’m unsure. Maybe he tripped? It all happened so quickly.”

“You didn’t see anything?”

“No.”

The whole while, I’m just sitting here knowing he’s going to ask me again how I knew where to find Hikaru. It was one thing to tell Maddox I could see ghosts before I really knew him and have him be like “Funny, I know you’re lying” and send me on my way. But I’m here in a different country with an actual attempted murder case spouting out either tales about the dead or lies.

I notice a ghost hanging behind the man and wonder if she could be my in on this, but I can’t tell if she’s here just because she’s bored or if she has an actual attachment to the guy. I mean, whipping out a “Hey, I have proof” always helps. But I don’t want to whip anything out. I want them to just go along with my fictitious story and send us on our way.

I take a deep breath and contemplate my choices here.

Officer Nakamura turns to me, and I realize that I’m screwed. No way out of this.

“How did you know about the attack?” he asks.

“I just… had… a bad feeling,” I say, just running with this.

“And how did you know his location?”

“I told him that Hikaru was coming from college and that he would pass through there on the way home,” Yumi says. “I forgot… I told him that.”

She sure as shit didn’t tell me that, but I’ll take it. I’ll fucking take it.

The hesitation tells me he’s not quite sure he believes it, but he says, “I see.”

He really doesn’t seem to see, but after a few more questions he appears satisfied to let us go. “So you two will be traveling for the next few days?”

“We’re leaving for Nara tomorrow, but we will be back here before going to Tokyo,” I say.

Nakamura nods. “Have a fun trip. Try not to run headfirst into any more danger.”

We head out, and on the way, I glance at Yumi. “Thank you.”

“Grandma told me to cover for you, but she didn’t say why,” she explains, which surprises me. Of anyone, I wouldn’t have assumed her grandma would have said it. “Thank you. Really, thank you. I’m going to go visit Hikaru, but I’ll have my mother drop you two back off at home. I can send you the itinerary we had for today and you two could go alone? I feel bad I can’t take you.”

“No, don’t feel bad,” I say. “And why doesn’t your mom take you, and we’ll catch the subway? We might just wander a bit anyway and see whatever you recommend. But please call us if you need anything.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” I assure her.

“Okay. Thank you. Have fun!”

“Thank you,” I say as she points us to the subway station which we can see from here before rushing off. I turn to Maddox. “Am I the only one who feels like there was more that was unsaid in our interview?”

“Oh, there was totally something else,” he says. “They didn’t call us in just to make us repeat everything. They could have asked over the phone about him stumbling. There was no new information passed along.”

“Then why call us in?”

“It could be that they’re suspicious about your role in it.”

“I just kind of feel like… if there wasn’t something more, then why does it matter? Do you get me? What’s it matter how I found him? I have no role in this besides the fact that I found him. Like if it’s clear that this guy has been stalking Hikaru for six months longer than I’ve known him, why does it matter how I found him?”

“Because something’s not right. My guess is that it has something to do with that text message.”

“So there’s another person involved?” I ask.

“Could be. The text made it seem like this Ren guy was in contact with a person who knew what he was going to do. Maybe even encouraged him, given the tone of the message,” Maddox says.

Keaton pops up in front of me, making me jump. “What I know is when you guys have your little chitchat, it’d probably be best not to do it right in front of the station where the officer who has been questioning you stands right inside and listens.”

“Huh,” I say.

“What?” Maddox asks.

“Let’s head to this Nijo castle. Sounds neat,” I suggest.

“Sure,” he agrees as we start walking.

After we’re a good distance from the station, I say, “I… guess we were being listened to when we talked back there.”

“Ah. Well, we didn’t say anything they didn’t already know. Suppose that wasn’t the wisest, though.”

“We can’t be geniuses all the time,” I assure him.

Maddox grins. “Right. And you know… no matter how much I want to wander back in there and try to con them into letting me help, I am going to remember that I’m on vacation and am not trying to slither my way into any cases that I won’t even be allowed to be involved in.”

“That’s true. We’re just going to be ideal tourists who find absolutely no more trouble and don’t get involved in anything else sketchy.”

He watches me closely. “Just you saying that feels like you’ve cursed us.”

I widen my eyes. “No! Maddox, please. We’re going to be such good, well-behaved people.”

“Right… definitely.”

“Super-uber definitely,” Reggie says. “So like… if I see someone about to be mugged… do I tell you?”

“He wasn’t getting mugged, he was enjoying it,” Natalie corrects.

“Someone’s getting mugged?” I ask in disbelief.

“Oh, dear god,” Maddox whispers.

“He was giggling. It wasn’t a mugging… at least, I don’t think. You don’t giggle when you get mugged,” Natalie says.

“I guess it depends how hot they are,” Reggie muses. “Like if Keaton mugged me… boy, oh, boy, I would be giggling.”

“What’s happening?” Maddox asks.

“I don’t know… I understand as much as you do and I can hear them,” I say, which makes him laugh.