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Chapter 36

Mai's POV

I sighed sadly as I began to put the dress on that Totochi had thrown at me earlier. 'Put it on,' he had said. 'Make yourself at least look presentable'. It was annoying, but I wasn't about to talk back to him now. Part of me was still hopeful that something would stop me from being married to him, but another part of me was beginning to lose hope. Naru said he would come back for me, but it's been almost a week. And that was before Totochi forced this engagement. I doubt Naru even knows anything about that. How would he?

Checking myself in the full length mirror, I winced at how tired I looked. Sleep hasn't been my friend since I got to this place. It's not that surprising I suppose, especially with me being so sick and feverish, but I might need some make-up or something to help cover this up—if Totochi even cares. Sighing, I zipped up my dress. Whenever he comes back to check on me, I'll ask him about the makeup. I already felt like crying again just thinking about this situation, and I probably would have if it wasn't for the footsteps I could hear down the hall. I stiffened automatically and sat down on the bed a few moments before the door opened.

"Are you dressed yet?"

"Yes." I spoke softly, but clearly, so he wouldn't yell at me for mumbling. I looked down at my hands in my lap, trying to gather up courage, before speaking again. "Would it...would it be okay if I had some makeup?"

I could feel his eyes begin to bore into me. It was silent for a few minutes before he threw a bag at me.

"What kind of idiot do you take me for? Use that. I can't have my fiancée walking around looking like that, now, can I?" He scoffed. I wisely chose not to say anything about how if it wasn't for him my face wouldn't look like this and just be thankful he thought of it. Opening the bag, I took a quick look at the different cosmetics I could use to cover up the marks marring my face. It seems everything was here that I'd need—and more. Totochi said he'd give me five minutes to finish getting ready before he left again, leaving me alone to work. I sighed as I began to apply it thickly, doing my best to cover all of the bruising and dark circles. I didn't want to think of what he would do if someone asked about them. I decided not to think about it, or anything really, and just do my best. I was just finishing up when Totochi opened the door again. "Hurry up. We need to go greet the guests. I want you to be on your best behavior, and if I hear anything funny, I'll make sure you regret it for the rest of your life." He threatened.

I nodded meekly and looked away, closing my eyes for a bit as my head pounded.

"Yes." I turned to zip up the makeup bag. "I just finished."

He scoffed. "Good. Let's go. Wouldn't want to keep our guests waiting—would we?" He sneered mockingly. I took several steps towards him and placed my hand on the crook of his arm that he offered me. Together, we walked out of the room and down the stairs. There were so many things that could go wrong tonight and I almost felt like trying to run for it, but as soon as the thought crossed my mind, I pushed it away. Nothing good would come of that. In my physical state, I wouldn't get very far and then I'd just have to suffer the consequences. As if sensing my internal struggle, Totochi turned to me and glared.

"I'll only say this one last time. Do not try anything stupid." He reminded me right before he entered the room for the party. I was shocked at how many people were here. I knew theoretically that Totochi's family had lots of money which would translate into there being a lot of people who want to keep an eye on him and his progress, but it hadn't quite hit me until I scanned the room full of people who were all dressed up and fancy.

And the food! There were lines of tables full of food. It was all so overwhelming after eating minimal food and having the most basic of care over the past few days. Looking at it all was making my feel nauseous so I focused my gaze elsewhere. I didn't know anyone which wasn't really a surprise, but before I could examine everyone too closely, they all looked over for our entrance. I hope I don't look too awful. I thought as Totochi led us to his father, who seemed to be standing in the middle of the room, smiling. It was like people parted for us as we walked by so we wouldn't have to squeeze passed anyone. It was uncomfortable being scrutinized so much, but I was grateful for the pathway. Plastering a smile on my face, I waited for Totochi to speak with his father first. I didn't want to know what would happen if I decided to speak first.

"Ah, there you two are!" His father announced with a smile. Totochi smiled back.

"Sorry, Father. Mai was just a little worried about looking perfect." He excused easily. Katsumi chuckled, turning his gaze to me to reassure me.

"You look wonderful, my dear."

Keeping my head down, I offered a small fake smile. "Thank you." I mumbled, pretending to be flattered.

"Well, this is your party, you two, so go enjoy it." Katsumi gave a small chuckle, clasping his hand on Totochi's shoulder. Totochi chuckled and nodded at his father.

"Of course. Come on, Mai. I'll introduce you to some people." He offered, smiling fakely as he reached for my hand. I hesitated for a moment, staring down at his hand. I didn't want to. I'd rather stick my hand in a bucket of acid. But as I glanced at Totochi and saw anger simmering in his eyes, I realized—again—that I didn't really have a choice. Swallowing I took his hand, fighting against the urge to bolt from the situation. I didn't want to do this. I didn't want to be here.

Totochi led me to person after person, introducing me to everyone he could. I tried my best to act like I was happy in this situation, answering quietly whenever someone directed a question towards me but mostly just listening to them speak to Totochi.

I sighed as he spoke with a few of his friends. Hard to believe he has any, but whatever. As I looked around the room, I caught sight of something—or I should say someone. My heart sped up momentarily at seeing that blond hair, the same color as Kei, but I quickly shook that thought away. Get a grip, Mai. You're being ridiculous.

Turning back to the conversation, I wanted to frown when I saw another flash of that blond hair out of the corner of my eye. Looking over, I tried to see a face. Part of me hoped it was Kei, but the other part of me argued that it was better for everyone to stay as far away from Totochi as possible. The last thing I wanted was for someone to get hurt because of me. Besides, how would anyone know I was here? Plus no one can get inside the building without showing their invitation. It was just wishful thinking. I was getting my hopes up for nothing. Kei wasn't here. No one I cared about was.

Despite my intent on convincing myself that Kei wasn't somewhere in the room, my instincts were practically screaming that it wasn't true. Somewhere in this room was Kei. And if Kei was here, then that means that maybe, maybe, Naru was here too.

"I will, Mai. I promise. I'll be back for you."

My heart stuttered as the words Naru spoke to me several days before flowed through my mind. Naru promised... and he always keeps his promises.

I twirled around, looking in the spot where I saw the blond haired man. With the sea of people, however, I lost him. Could it really have been Kei? But how? If it had been him, how could he have gotten in? Totochi would've—no. Totochi's never met Kei. And Fumito—I didn't even recognize Kei when I first met him again back at the chocolate factory, so there's no way Fumito would remember him. Blood started pounding in my ears at the thought. Without knowing, my feet started going in the direction of where I had seen the man, maybe Kei.

"Mai." I felt a hand grab my wrist. I looked back to see Totochi giving me a hard look that made me flinch and his friends were looking at me like I was the rudest person ever. Oh, right... I was supposed to have been talking with them. Plastering a smile on my face, I tried to look apologetic.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to leave abruptly, but my throat was feeling a little parched and I was only grabbing a drink." I explained, praying that they wouldn't think too much of it. Totochi pulled me back towards him, laughing slightly in a show of understanding, even if his eyes didn't agree.

"You needn't walk over to grab yourself a drink. Let me just wave someone down." He suggested. I opened my mouth to say something, but he was already flagging a waiter down. Instead I just smiled and nodded.

"Oh...right. Thank you." When the waiter arrived, I smiled slightly. "Can I just get a water please?" I requested softly.

He nodded, passing me a glass from his tray and smiled before moving away. Just as I lifted the glass to take a sip, I heard a familiar voice from behind myself speak up.

"My, don't you look beautiful tonight." I spun around to find Chise Tanabe, Totochi's aunt. I had to stop my jaw from dropping. What was she doing here? I mean I know she's his aunt and all... but she knew I was together with Naru at her house. Didn't Totochi think maybe that would seem weird I'm suddenly "engaged" to him when I was dating Naru?

Giving her a small smile, I eyed her carefully. "Thank-you. It's been a while." I greeted, bowing slightly, concerned by the stare that I could feel from Totochi beside me.

"You know, you really have good taste in men." She teased, giving a deliberate look towards Totochi before looking around. "It's a shame none of your friends could make it tonight though."

What was I supposed to say to that? If I said the wrong thing, Totochi would let me hear it later. I needed to say something Totochi would like to hear.

"None of them supported my engagement to your nephew," I shared robotically. "So they weren't invited."

Chise seemed a little taken aback by my statement, but when I didn't get a warning from Totochi, I figured I'd done something right. With a slight shake of her head and a smile, she grabbed my hand. "Well I'm sure they'll come around. They care for you, and if you ever needed anything, I'm sure they wouldn't be far." She reassured me lightly.

My gaze snapped toward hers at her tone, and I noticed something passed through her eyes. I glanced discreetly at Totochi, but he seemed to have gone back to talking with his friends. My respond earlier must have satisfied him into thinking I wouldn't say anything stupid. I had a distinct feeling that she was stressing those words for a reason, and for a moment, my mind whirled to figure it out before everything seemed to click into place. The flashes of Kei appearing here and there and Naru's words from before. They were here!

My heartbeats went into overdrive in anticipation. Without thinking, I started looking around for Kei again, but Chise gently touched my arm. The knowing look she gave me settled me down, reminding me of Totochi. He still had his arm around me, but he wasn't looking at me as he was still talking to his friends. It was a good thing too because if it weren't for that then there was no way he would've missed my reaction just then, and then all of the hard work they'd gone to would be wasted. Taking a deep breath I forced myself to calm down a little and think. I needed to figure out if there was a way to help Kei and Naru with whatever plan they'd come up with to get me out of here.

"Yes..." I said, nodding slowly. My mind was racing like crazy. "I'm sure they would."

Seemingly relieved that I had gotten the correct message, Chise relaxed slightly.

"Walk with me to get a drink? Surely you don't want to hang around your fiancé the entire night? I'll introduce you to a few other people." She insisted, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards a table that was full of dessert options, without waiting for a reply from myself or Totochi. A sliver of panic went through me at what Totochi might do. Getting away couldn't be that easy, right? I couldn't help but look behind me to see what his expression would be like.

There seemed to be a bit of suspicion on his face as he stared at me, and his eyes practically screamed about what would happen to me if anything funny happened. Swallowing thickly, I turned back to the table instead, regretting looking back because now all I could see was that expression.

Chise quietly said my name to get my attention. She had a smile on her face, but her eyes were filled with worry. "Are you alright?"

Plastering a smile on my face before anyone else could notice anything, I nodded.

"Of course. How could I not be?" I pointed out, laughing slightly and wincing at the pitch it took on because of my nerves. Chise gave a laugh as she scanned the crowd, looking for someone to "introduce" me to.

"They're here, Mai." I had to strain my ears just to hear her. Instead of the relief I knew I should be feeling, it made me feel even more panicked.

"He's watching me. I can't do anything." I managed to mumble back as quiet as possible.

"I'm so sorry, Mai." Chise's eyes softened. "But we will get you out of here, I promise. We're not leaving until you're safely with Mr. Shibuya."

I tried to smile at her encouragement but couldn't quite bring myself to. I felt dizzy all of a sudden.

"How, though?" I insisted, trying to find some composure. Nothing was going to work out if Totochi caught me freaking out. Chise gave me a look as if she was ashamed before looking away. Just from that, I realized they didn't really know how, seeing as how anything could go wrong with Totochi watching me so closely, just that they were.

As I looked back at Chise, I saw that she wasn't looking at me anymore but at someone behind me.

"Excuse me, Miss. Would you care for a drink?"

Turning around, it took all of my strength not to react to the sight of Kei standing right there. My eyes widened and I reached a hand out to jump on him from how happy I felt, but I managed to stop myself right in time. I immediately looked towards Totochi once again at my slip up, but Kei was blocking his view from me. I relaxed a little at that. Biting my lip, I took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. Glancing around, I tried to see if anyone was paying us any attention, but it seemed they were all pretty caught up in their own conversations. Good.

"What are you doing here?" I asked softly. Kei simply grinned at me like I asked a silly question. God, I missed him. I miss everyone, especially Naru.

"Why else do you think?" He said, handing me a glass of water that I didn't ask for. "I'm here to save the damsel in distress."

I wasn't sure whether to get angry at his wording or feel relieved at the thought of getting out of here to somewhere safe.

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that?" I asked, concerned about how well they'd thought this through, remembering the unsure look on Chise's face from earlier. Kei's grin slipped and then he worked his jaw, clenching it. Great. They're going on an amateur plan here. Then again this is the only chance they would've been able to get to me, so I'm grateful nonetheless.

"Don't worry about it, Mai. Just make sure you run when it's time."

I frowned, furrowing my brows. What did that mean? Before I could comment further though, Kei grabbed the last glass that he had on his serving board and handed it to Chise with a smile.

"If you'll excuse me, it would seem that I need to go and grab some more drinks to circulate." He informed us, bow politely before moving off towards the drinks table.

"Do you know what he meant by that?" I turned to Chise with the frown still present on my face. He wasn't going to do something dangerous, right? Chise shrugged slightly, clearly unaware of what was going on as we watched Kei approach the table, smiling at everyone as he made his way up to it, anxious but unsure as to what to do.

He'd said to run, but what the hell did that mean?

I watched as he refilled his tray with drinks and turned around, bumping into a couple and a few glasses slipped off the tray from the impact. He seemed to stumble backwards, and I watched as his back hit another person who had been behind him, knocking them off balance. It was almost like slow motion as I watched them fall towards the table and on the large chocolate fountain, the man's weight tilting it. The room was almost deadly silent as everyone watched on, anxious as the fountain teetered back and forwards before giving up the fight to right its self and it began to fall towards the drinks. Everything seemed to speed back up as a loud crash echoed around the room, shattered glass flying everywhere.

"Oh my..." Chise muttered beside me. My mouth dropped in disbelief, and through the chaos of people running to and from the table, screaming from the falling glass, and from the yelling, Kei somehow found me and gave me a discreet wink. Forcing myself to stop gaping, I glanced over quickly to see if anyone was paying attention to me, but all their eyes were on Kei in that moment, including a very angry looking Totochi.

Swallowing, I sent silent thanks towards Kei before I turned around and ran through the nearest door, the sound of my shoes covered by the yelling and general noise of the room. I ran until I was certain I had a good distance between me and that room before I came to a halt, panting, as my head spun. I was in a corridor, I needed to find the way out of this damned house. I tried to look around and figure out where I was but everything just kept moving and I couldn't get a real sense of anything. I had been so focused on everything else that I hadn't paid enough attention to my body. Adrenaline thumped as I forced my eyes to try and focus.

I don't have time for this! I screamed at myself.

"Mai!"

I jerked around at the sound of my voice. Ayako was standing beside a window about twenty feet away from me. I squinted my eyes. Was I seeing things now?

"Mai, are you okay?" Ayako tried again. Hallucination Ayako came closer to me, her eyes looking worried. She always looked worried these days. Feeling the press of a warm hand to my clammy forehead, I blinked in confusion feeling dazed. Can you feel hallucinations now? "God, you're burning up," She exclaimed. "Can you run, Mai? We need to hurry!"

I blinked, uncomprehending for a moment before I registered what was going on. Kei was here before, and now so was Ayako. They were trying to get me out of here. Forcing myself away from my dazed state, I nodded slightly.

"I can run." I agreed, despite how my body protested at the mere thought of taking a single step. Ayako grabbed my hand, tugging for me to follow her so I did.

"You'll have to climb out a window, can you do that?" She asked as we turned a corner.

"Yes." I agreed. I'd have to. I couldn't waste this one chance to get away. It was now or never. The thought of never made a shiver run down my spine. I'd much prefer now. She took me down another hallway before coming to a stop in front one of the windows. She gently grabbed my shoulders to steady me.

"Monk's on the other side, okay? He'll help you down." She informed. I nodded my head, not completely aware of what was going on around me at this point because of how my head was spinning again, but I was determined to follow her lead.

Swallowing, I ignored the throbbing in my head as I stepped out of the window, relieved when I felt Monk grab me carefully to help me down. A moment later, I was having the life squeezed out of me and my feet were dangling in the air. Usually I yell at him for his bear hugs, but I missed them and I missed him. He let me go once Ayako scolded him and told him to help her down as well. I wobbled slightly at the sudden lack of support before managing to steady myself. Swallowing thickly as Ayako was helped out of the window as well, I couldn't help the sudden anxiety that came back, slamming into me harshly.

What were we going to do now?

Naruisawesome: Yall are probably furious at us...

MzShellSan: But we hope this extra long chapter makes up for it...? *grins hopefully*

Naruisawesome: It's been almost two years, we're sooo sorry! But good news, we've written a lot the past month and thus was able to post this chapter!

MzShellSan: The next chapter won't be as long, and then we'll have a little epilogue, which we have all planned out. So this story will be finished soon!

Naruiawesome: Finally. Please review! Ya know...after you most likely reread this whole story just to remember what's going on...

MzShellSan: *mumbles* God, we suck at updates...