It's very 007, but with tea instead of martinis.
Oh and, this is a weird question, but does Shibata and Aya end up hooking up? Because that's what it sounds like... yeah.
Ah, the timeless question from my readers (or some of them). Hahaha.
Chapter 24In what is developing into our routine, Shibata comes in, sits down with some tea, and starts to report.
"Takashi's bringing some people to the café so that we can meet."
More people? This has got to be the extra people who Ochiai said were meeting with Miki. They must be one big team of killers.
"We're going to have a casual chat. Nothing big, he said."
"When?"
"Actually, this evening."
This evening? Already? That's really suspicious.
"I'm going with you," I say determinedly.
"No you're not," she replies without a skipping a beat. "Everyone knows who you are. It's too dangerous. I can handle it on my own."
"No. I'm going to go and have a look. If they're the same people that met with Miki, I want to know."
"How will you even know?" sighs Shibata. "Ochiai-san can confirm it, and I can come back here and tell you everything."
I shake my head.
"Not good enough. I want to see these guys. I'll hide out in the kitchen, and I promise not to show my face."
"No," Shibata says in a final tone. "There's no way I'm letting you go."
An hour and a half later, Shibata and I walk into the Terrace Café. I've won our argument. I keep my head down low and follow behind her. Surprisingly, there's nobody in the little shop, so we call Ochiai out. I explain to her what I want to do, and I ask if it's all right to stay in the kitchen with her. She agrees to it, and I'm quickly ushered in while Shibata goes to wait at her table. She's a bit early, so she orders a coffee.
I stand in a corner of the kitchen and avoid the occasional curious looks I get from the staff. Two of them are making sweets, while another one is seated and eating a sandwich. Ochiai is sitting out in the shop as a lookout, so I have nobody to talk with. I wait, fidgeting and shifting my weight every few minutes.
This situation I'm in is really absurd when I think about it. I'm hiding in a kitchen, acting like a spy. Do I really think I can catch a killer? I'm way out of my league here.
While moping over my situation, I hear the wind chimes signal that the door has been opened. I peek out the kitchen and see a tall figure walk in. My gaze shifts toward Ochiai's immediately. She has the same idea, and she looks in my direction casually and nods once. Our signal for Takashi.
A server immediately goes to seat him, so I can't see his face until she moves away.
My god, he's handsome. They haven't been exaggerating. He walks in with an air of confidence, but modesty. His face is set in a peaceful expression, his eyes gentle. He looks like he's in his thirties, but a young thirties.
Suddenly I don't feel so sure about myself. Even I'm swooning over this man's perfection. I can only imagine what Miki must have thought when she saw him. I can see him approaching her, her eyes going starry staring into his. He tells a joke and she giggles. He compliments her on her fashion sense and she blushes and thanks him. Maybe there
was something going on between them...
No. That's not how Miki would act anyway.
My jaw hardens and I go into denial mode. I watch him walk over to Shibata's table. They greet each other with smiles, and he sits down right beside her. They begin to talk. It seems like small talk. He pulls out his cell phone, and it looks like he's showing her some photos on it.
They are interrupted five minutes later by two other men. I look at Ochiai. She nods twice subtly. They're the same men that met with Miki.
I fight the urge to run out there and start demanding to know what their meetings were about. It takes every bit of willpower to keep myself from doing anything but stand and watch.
The men are introduced to Shibata, and they all sit down together. Takashi pulls out a folder and takes a sheet of paper out of it, placing it in the middle of the table. They start to discuss something, and I'm dying to know what. They keep it up for twenty minutes, and then just as quickly as they started, they finish. The two men leave. Takashi and Shibata sit and chat for a few more minutes. Then they also leave. Together.
Where are they going??
Ochiai comes back into the kitchen, but my mind is whirling with too many thoughts to start a conversation with her. She starts it instead.
"Those two men met with Fujimoto-san. The meeting they just had now looked just like the meetings she had with them."
This can't be happening. What is going on? What's their hidden agenda?
"Did you hear anything?" I ask.
Ochiai shakes her head.
Flustered, I take out my cell phone and mail Shibata
Where are you going?!?Twenty minutes pass and I get no reply. My heart starts to beat at a crazy speed. What if Takashi's going to drown Shibata? What if he's going to take her back to his apartment and do who knows what with her? I refuse to let him get to anyone else anymore. I have to protect what's left of my friends. I'm not going to let Shibata become his next victim. I'm about to jump out of the café and go looking for them when my phone rings.
"Aya-chan, h-"
"Where did you go?!" I yell into the phone, completely losing my nerve.
"Don't worry. We walked to the station together. He's gone now."
I try to breathe evenly. I try to quell the hatred rising up in me.
"Okay," I mumble.
"Stay put. I'm going back to get you."
She hangs up and I feel weak from my outburst. Ochiai lets me have a seat at a table and she brings over some water, sitting across from me.
"She means a lot to you, doesn't she," she says.
Who is she talking about? Miki or Shiba-chan? Of course they both mean a lot to me. But in different ways.
I shrug uncertainly.
"I don't think she would have done anything to hurt you," Ochiai continues. "Like I told you, I'm a people watcher. I can tell that much."
I think she's talking about Miki. If she's as good a people watcher as she claims to be, then it must have been pretty obvious to her just how much Miki meant to me (and vice versa) when I was with her at the café.
But wait. Didn't Ochiai say Takashi gave her a bad feeling? That he was a nice man on the outside, but disturbed on the inside? I wonder why Shibata hasn't picked up on that.
Maybe she's smitten with him, too, I think sourly.
"I'd love to believe you," I tell her.
She gives me a strange look. One that tells me I should trust her. But how can I? My self-esteem is being broken down bit by bit as the minutes tick by. A thousand letters from Miki cannot comfort me. A million memories of kisses cannot make me see past the thick fog that has settled over my eyes. A fog full of uncertainty and jealousy.
"Wallowing in your self-pity won't do you any good," she says suddenly.
Those are the harshest words I've ever heard her speak. She sounds like Shibata on one of her inspirational tirades that start with her chastising me.
"Stop feeling so insecure and sorry for yourself, and stop questioning a dead girl's actions as if you really know about them, because you don't. I was here and I was watching her. I would know if her feelings changed at all. They never did. If you really liked her and knew her, then you wouldn't be doubting her."
Oh... my...She's right.
I sit there, shocked, my eyes locked with Ochiai's. This woman must be some mystical being. An angel or... something. She's like an all-knowing, omnipotent person who has dug into my mind, brought forth my issues, and displayed them on the table so that I can see them clearly.
But I don't know if she fully understands or not. It's not that I don't trust Miki. It's just that I really don't know where I am anymore. The world has no up and no down, and I'm floating around in it without knowing which way I'm going. I'm lost, not because I can't find the road, but because there is no road. There's no precedent. This has never happened before. I have nothing to go on, no example to follow. If anything, I'm
making the road as I go. Nothing makes sense to me. It seems that everything I've believed up until the point of Miki's death can't be trusted anymore. Everything is the opposite now. I'm no longer a confident person. I'm weak and unsure of myself.
I have to stop that feeling.
I swallow hard and don't say a word until Shibata comes running in. She bursts upon the scene like a nuclear explosion, stunning me out of my silence. Ochiai seems surprised, too, and her expression softens as she looks at Shibata.
"Um, sorry to interrupt..." Shibata says uncertainly, no doubt sensing the tension between me and Ochiai.
"No, have a seat. I was just leaving."
Ochiai gets up and gestures to her chair. With a firm nod directed at me, she floats off into the kitchen. Shibata looks after her with a puzzled frown, but then quickly sits down.
"Shiba-chan," I say, but I don't continue. I can't think of what to say to her.
"Okay, that meeting was really weird," she starts off.
"What happened?" I ask, getting into thinking mode again.
"Well, first, we just chatted. About sports, actually. He's a big curling fan. Then those men came in. They were nice. We just discussed my schedule for the next few months. They told me about some of the projects they've worked on before. Just a meeting to get to know each other."
"I don't see what's so weird about that," I say.
Shibata shakes her head.
"It wasn't the discussion that weirded me out. It was the feeling."
Oh no. Here it starts.
Shibata lowers her voice and continues to speak.
"Ochiai-san was right. There's something strange about that man. He's really charming, and he's a great conversationalist. I mean, he made
curling sound interesting. But when those other men got here and we started to talk business, things changed. He got really focused, and not just the normal kind of focused. Almost obsessively so. He wanted to know every single detail about everything. I've never seen anybody get like him. I mean, you're a hard worker and you pay attention to detail, but he was a hundred times worse than you at your most concentrated."
"Did he threaten you?" I ask concernedly.
"No, not at all. But I'm going to watch out from now on. That kind of obsession isn't healthy."
It's not what I've been expecting to hear. If anything, I thought he'd get aggressive or angry. Not obsessed with tiny details. I find that I'm wanting him to do something violent so that we have an excuse to start taking more action than just chatting over coffee and hiding in kitchens.
"What's the next step?" I ask.
"We're meeting tomorrow evening."
"With those other guys?"
"How'd you guess?" Shibata asks bitterly.
We share a miserable look.
"What do you think is going on? Honestly."
Shibata sighs.
"I don't know. From the looks of it, they really want me to work with them. We're establishing a good relationship. Maybe it's to help our professional relationship go smoothly," she speculates.
"Do you think he wants, um..." I stutter. "That he wants, like, you to, uh, you and him..."
I trail off and the look on Shibata's face shows me she understands what I'm asking. It also scares me. She looks like she has no clue.
"I don't know. For all I know, that could be what he's after. It could be what he was after with Miki. If it was, she obviously didn't like it when she found out his true intentions."
That makes me feel a little better. It's true. Ochiai said Miki became angrier during the meetings as time went on. If she was happy with Takashi and those other guys, she wouldn't have gotten angry.
"What do we do if that's what he's doing?"
Shibata looks at me apprehensively.
"You're not going to like this, but we'll have to call the police."
I start to protest, but she raises a hand and her voice.
"We should have gone to them before any of this started," she reminds me. "If they're some sick group of perverts who get their kicks by promising a girl success, forcing her into having sex or killing them, we can't handle them alone."
"But if they had all those meetings with Miki, they must have known she was successful. I mean, they must have known who she was to call a meeting with her," I point out.
"Then I guess they had a really good deal for her. Better than the things she'd already done."
A chilling thought. What could they have tempted Miki with? Before they began to threaten her, that is.
What was it?
"Have you talked to Tsuyoshi-kun lately?" Shibata asks out of the blue.
"Huh?"
"Tsuyoshi-kun," she repeats slowly. "Have you talked to him?"
I shake my head.
"Not since before the funeral."
"You should give him a call. See how he's doing."
Is this Shibata's way of trying to distract me?
She's right, though. I haven't talked to Tsuyoshi, and he must be wondering how everything is going. I'll call him tonight.
"All right. I will. What are you going to do tonight?" I ask.
"Me? I have some papers I have to work on," she replies, standing up.
I stand guiltily. I've been keeping Shibata away from her own work in order to pursue this chase of mine. I need to let her get her things done.
When we say good night to Ochiai, I avoid eye contact with her. We leave and catch trains home.
The whole way home, I feel like somebody's watching me. I look around and over my shoulder, but there's nobody there. I shrug it off as paranoia and get into my apartment.
I go into my room as I think about the events of the day. Two meetings with Takashi, and a business proposal. It's unbelievable. I lie down on my bed while still wearing my jacket and I stare up at the ceiling, letting my mind wander. It's like this that I fall asleep, neglecting to call Tsuyoshi or to change into my pyjamas.