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***
It had been an order.
I was not expecting her sentence to end with a gentle 'if that's OK with you', but it still surprised me when she walked out saying 'be ready in ten minutes'.
We were ready in five. Our things packed into single bags that we carried by our side.
Saya is rich, we learned.
Money had never been a topic much discussed within our group, though it was nearly inevitable after the girl handed us each a plane ticket. It was not a paper printed off the internet. Someone had gone to the airport, bought five seats to a flight to Hanedakuko, Tokyo, and came back before our luggage was closed.
We were to be inside the plane in two hours, then to arrive in Tokyo thirteen plus hours later.
I couldn't even begin to imagine the total expense. It did, however, scare me to think of how effortlessly that money was spent.
Despite only knowing the ground for nineteen years, I found out pretty quickly I despised the sky far more.
The take off was nightmarish at best. And being seated next to Saya made it so I couldn't fully express my desperation to get the fuck out of there. So, my anxiety was condensed into my jumping knees.
I wondered if I was as terrified when I first came to the US.
At least, facing the window lessened the nauseous twist in the pit of my stomach.
It had been five hours and all of my friends were asleep. That is, all of them except Saya.
She had not deviated her eyes from the book she held tightly in her hands. I've been hearing the rhythm of her nails tapping against the hard cover since the turbulence stopped.
"She didn't take her things." I heard Saya say.
I turned away from the window.
"She didn't take anything with her. She left her room intact." She closed the book, laying it on her lap. "She didn't get to jump, but this is her suicide."
As opposed to us, I understood.
I don't own much. But the few things I do, were inside my bag. Jun didn't need hers, because she wasn't planning on staying a month in Tokyo.
"I'm sorry."
"If we don't get there in time, I swear-" she interrupted herself, clenching her jaw to restrain her words. "You better pray your persuasion skills are good enough."
I furrowed my brows. "What?"
"Why do you think you're here? It isn't for backup, that's for sure." Her tone bordered on deadpan. "She won't listen to me."
Disbelief took over my nausea, erasing it into a long lost memory of times better than this. "And she'll listen to me?"
"Yes."
"Why in the world would she do that?!"
"Bacause you hate her." She said.
I don't hate her. "That's not true. I don't particularly like her, but she's indifferent to me." I corrected her.
"I don't give a shit about how you feel about Jun. All that matters is that she believes you hate her." She opened her book and showed me pages and pages of writing.
Saya took the book back to open it in a specific page. "I never knew the human stare to be so telling of one's emotions. It could be a trait particular to Marcus, to express disgust as clearly as he does when he looks at me." She read.
"What's that?" I scan over the passage with my own eyes.
She closed it back up before I had the chance to read further down. "Her diary, I think. I found it taped to the underside of her bed." A sigh. "I thought it might give me some idea of what happened before she came here, but it's all about her time at King's. There is nothing about her feelings either, she just writes about how people here act and think, how they feel about her."
It took some will power to tear my eyes away from the book. "I still don't understand how me being here increases your chances of getting her to come back."
"Even if I talk to her, give her some objective arguments, she will suspect my judgement is distorted by how I feel about her." Saya had a tinge of annoyance as she spoke. She wanted to be the reason her sister changed her mind. "She won't listen to anyone that cares about her."
"So, that's where I come in."
Saya nodded.
I paused to think of her plan. And how I am a crucial part of it.
"What about them?" I cocked my head toward the other side of the plane, where the rest of my friends sat.
"They are backup."
I made a face.
"Petra is an amazing strategic thinker and is skilled with long range combat." She explained. "Lex's expertise are explosives and overall fire-related weapons. And Billy might not look like it, but I've seen him hold his own with a katana against one of Lin's best."
"But, surely, you have people on your side much better at 'backup-ing'."
She has at least five professional assassins loyal to her, and half a dozen swords men and women.
"People are used to me disappearing days on end. But it would arouse suspicion if more of my known resources didn't show up to class."
Ah. They would be missed. Maria would be missed, the Syndicate would be missed. We wouldn't.
It isn't a slap on the face if I had full knowledge of it.
Cockroaches are noticed when there are too many, not when there are too little.
"She will go to the Omoiyari family's home first. She won't be able to help it." She drew an invisible line in the air. An imaginary map where she pictured Jun's next moves. "They have converted a closet into a spiritual temple. it's small, but they are the only ones we can trust in Japan. She will pray to whatever she believes moves the universe and ask for whatever protection it can give her on her ascend." Another line, forming a 'v' in her map. "Then, she'll go to our old house."
Three points. The airport, the temple, and their house.
"We will intercept her at Omoiyari's. And you'll talk to her." She circled the middle point. Emphasizing its location in between the first and last point. "Hopefully, we won't need to go near my house."
