Chapter Eight

Tatsuya’s date with Kaida was far from over, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the things she had told him. Right when Kaida told him that she knew where Darren was, he had received a text from Maddy saying she was going to Darren’s house, with his address. Tatsuya hastily left the cafe, and began to walk to Darren’s house.
He actually ran into Maddy also walking to Darren’s house when he was half way there.
“I’m really glad you decided to come, Tatsuya,” she told him. “I hate walking around his neighborhood by myself, especially since I’m still fairly new here.”
“Yeah, sure,” Tatsuya said. “Any time.”
Maddy smiled at him, which forced Tatsuya to smile back. “You know, when I’m around you, I’m not myself,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I feel different when I talk to you. I feel like a totally different person. I feel more thoughtful, and deep, and intelligent when I talk to you.”
Tatsuya shrugged. “Have you ever thought about it like you’re normal around me and a different person to everyone else?”
“I haven’t until now,” she said. “But I guess that makes sense.”
“Does it really?”
“It does.”
“Not a lot of people understand me when I speak,” he said. “Then again, I don’t talk to too many people. I’m mostly by myself.”
“Well, I’d figure that means everyone you know is just stupid,” she said. “And I never understood why you like being alone all the time.”
“It’s not really that I like being alone, I guess I’ve just gotten used to it.”
“You couldn’t have been alone for your entire life.”
“Well, of course not,” Tatsuya said. He began to laugh at himself.
“What?” Maddy asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing. I just thought of something funny that happened a while ago. Ten years ago, actually.”
Maddy scoffed. “I don’t even remember stuff from ten years ago.”
“Yeah. Well, when something—or someone—was such a big part of your life, it’s hard to forget those specific moments. Even after ten years.”
“Good point,” she said. “I guess I didn’t really have anything special enough to remember from ten years ago.”
Tatsuya smiled sadly, and then reminded himself that she would remember him, but she had amnesia.
“I’m sorry if this is just kind of random,” she said. “But like I said, I’m more thoughtful when I’m around you.”
“It’s okay,” Tatsuya said, smiling at her. “This is a conversation I really enjoy, actually. I don’t enjoy very many conversations. You’re one of the few people I like to talk to.”
Maddy giggled, and looked up at the orange sky. “I feel honored,” she said. “That you actually enjoy speaking to me.”
“Don’t be,” he said. “I’m not that cool of a person.”
“Oh, not at all,” she said, looking back at him, her eyes sparkling dimly in the lack of light. “You’re very cool and interesting.”
“I think you’re head is still full of chlorine,” Tatsuya said, laughing at his own lame joke.
“Yeah, well… I’m still really happy that you saved me. I felt like I was going to drown.”
“You probably wouldn’t have, but then again, drowning is mostly all in the mind.”
“True. So you saved my life, technically. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“I think we’re almost at Darren’s house.”
“Yeah. I recognized the address as soon as you sent it to me. He lives in that house that no one has lived in for eight years.”
Maddy laughed, even though it wasn’t a joke.
They walked up to the door, and Tatsuya knocked lightly on the door.
A woman opened it. She had red hair and green eyes, just like Darren did, and she seemed to be crying quite a bit.
“Hi, Mrs. Morris?” Tatsuya said.
“Yes, hello, can I help you?” Mrs. Morris replied in between sobs.
“Uh, we’re friends of Darren. He hasn’t been at school, and he hasn’t been answering any calls, so we were just wondering if he’s all right.”
“Oh, Darren has such sweet friends,” she said, wiping her face with her handkerchief. “But I’m afraid he’s a bit ill. He’s in his room right now, asleep. The doctors don’t really know what’s wrong with him, so I haven’t allowed him to leave his room.”
“The doctors don’t know what’s wrong with him?” Maddy asked.
“Yes,” she said. “It might be contagious, so I’d suggest not seeing him.”
“Oh. Well, thank you,” Maddy said. “I hope he gets better soon.”
“Yes, I hope so, too,” Mrs. Morris said.
“Uh, Mrs. Morris,” Tatsuya said after a moment of thinking. “Could I ask a question regarding Darren’s condition?”
“I suppose,” she said, clearing her throat.
“Does this illness have anything to do with… failure of the heart?”
Mrs. Morris coughed. “Yes, a little bit. How did you guess that?”
Tatsuya shrugged. “A lucky guess, I suppose.”
“Yes… of course. Well, you kids better be on your way.”
“Thank you once again, Mrs. Morris,” Tatsuya said as she closed the door on them.
“How did you know?” Maddy asked Tatsuya. “How did you know he had some sort of heart problem?”
“Like I said, it was a lucky guess,” he said. “Listen, I really have to go home now. You go straight home, and I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
“Um, all right,” Maddy said, a bit confused. “I’ll see you later, then.”
Once Maddy was out of sight, Tatsuya jogged home so he could arrive there quickly. He ran into his room, picked up his great-grandfather’s diary, and began to read more of it.

Happy New Year. But there’s too much going on to celebrate.
First thing’s first, the most amazing thing happened to me yesterday. It was wonderful, beautiful, amazing, and indescribable. I fell in love. There’s this woman here, and she’s studying the ancient tribe of this lost race of Japanese people. She’s from England. Her name is Lily Peters. I met her today, and sparks just flew. It’s impossible to write down all the emotion I felt when I looked into her beautiful green eyes.
Kelly is the only person I’m allowing to help me with the remainders of my expedition. She’s not doing any of the really physical stuff, for example, the things that killed some of my other men, but she’s helping me a lot nonetheless by helping me gather information so I can pinpoint the exact location of where the treasure is, so I don’t have to keep searching and risking my life to find it.
Some of the other villagers have offered to share their stories, but it’s completely useless. I can’t even understand them, so I don’t see why they’re so keen on trying to help me. I keep telling them to just leave me alone.
But they keep falling ill. I just don’t understand it. So many of them are dying, too, and I can’t seem to understand why. Is it some sort of new disease being spread? Well, I’ve never heard of it or seen any of these symptoms before. I really hope that neither I nor Kelly gets this disease.

Tatsuya threw the journal down onto his desk by Gina. “Come on, great-grandpa. I don’t want to hear about you and your girlfriend, I just want to know about that strange disease you keep talking about.”
“Tatsuya, I’m sure if you keep reading, you’ll find the information you want,” Gina said.
Tatsuya sighed. He didn’t want to keep reading, though. All this useless information about Kelly Peters was in the way. He decided to call Kaida.
“Hello?” she said from the other end of the phone.
“Kaida, I need to speak with you. It’s important.”
“Do you want to hear some of my stories?” she asked.
“Well, I need information,” he said. “If your stories can provide me with it, then that would be really great, but I need to ask you a couple of questions.”
“It’s hard to tell stories over the phone,” she said. “How about we meet in person?”
“Kaida, it’s almost 8 o’clock right now,” Tatsuya said. “I can’t possibly meet up with you this late.”
“The night is young, Tatsuya,” she said. “And it’s a Saturday night. I’m sure your sister is out with her friends right now.”
Tatsuya shook his head, and then he remembered he was on the phone and she couldn’t see him. “Who cares what my sister is doing right now? I don’t even remember telling you I had a sister.”
“Oh, so you don’t care what your sister is doing right now?”
“She’s safe with her friends,” Tatsuya snapped. “And being with her friends all the time is her routine, not mine. I like to be alone on Saturday nights, thank you very much. Do you mind just giving me some information and ending it at that?”
“My stories will seem so flat if I say them over the phone,” she said.
Tatsuya began to get angry. “I don’t care so much for your stories than the information that you are going to give me. Tell me, in the early 1900s, was there any deadly disease or plague that spread through Japanese villages?”
“No, there was no plague,” she said.
“What?” Tatsuya exclaimed. “No plague? But there had to be something that randomly killed people, right? I mean, there had to be something that made them fall ill. A bunch of Japanese villagers don’t randomly drop dead, do they?”
“Of course not,” she said, her voice remaining calm. “But it doesn’t mean there was a disease.”
“So what killed them?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Kaida said after a moment of silence.
“Maybe I’ll believe you, and maybe I won’t, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tell me.”
“Magic,” she said simply.
“Magic?” Tatsuya repeated.
“Yes,” she said. “Magic. To be specific, magic that belongs to dragons.”
Tatsuya thought about what she said. It was obviously one of her folk legends she must have heard from her family. “Kaida, listen to me. I want you to tell me some of those stories that you were talking about. Can you tell me a couple now?”
“I don’t want to ruin them by not telling you in person,” she said. “And I promised you I would tell you on our second date.”
Tatsuya groaned. “All right. Tell me on our second date. Can you come over to my house tomorrow?”
There was no response for a moment, which made Tatsuya confused if she had hung up the phone on him or not.
“Yes, I think I can,” she said. “You know, I was a bit surprised when you called me. I thought you weren’t supposed to call directly after a date.”
“Well, I’m sorry about that,” Tatsuya said, his voice as insincere as possible.
“No matter. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
“Yeah, see you,” Tatsuya said, hanging up the phone.