Breaking Point || on hold

Chapter Twenty One

Naomi woke up a couple of days later, feeling pretty good for once. She woke up at a reasonable time (noon was reasonable for her) and showered and changed into her daily outfit of jeans and a t-shirt. She tied up her hair into a high ponytail before trotting down the stairs to her dysfunctional family.

Upon arriving to the bar area, she instantly feels some kind of tension in the room. Kusanagi stood behind the bar, quietly shining an already sparkling wine glass, while Mikoto sat across from Anna who had a map in front of her. Three red marbles were circling the entire map, trying to find one location but it never came to a conclusion. With one shake of her head, the entire room let out frustrated groans and sighs.

"What's wrong?" Naomi broke the silence, receiving looks of acknowledgement across the room.

"Nothing, just some HOMRA business" Kusanagi sighed as he set down the glass and pulled out a plate with rice balls on it. He set the plate in front of him, gesturing for Naomi to take the plate.

"Well what kind of business?" Naomi inquired, feeling nervous since they almost never hide things from her. Ever since HOMRA started doing its thing, they have always been honest with what they were doing and that was one thing she deeply appreciated of them.

The room was hesitant, everyone inconspicuously glanced from side to side while they waited for either Tatara, Mikoto or Kusanagi to say something. Mikoto barely sighed before letting out a low grunt to Tatara.

Tatara, who was sitting on the arm of the couch, stood from his place and sat across from Naomi. He took a breath before finally speaking:
"You know the people who, you know, took you? Well we thought it was all over when we burned the building but last night, Yata found this" Tatara pulls out a note with a date on it: November 30th. That was in one week.  At the bottom of the paper was the insignia of a group; the gang that took her to begin with.

Naomi froze momentarily, as did the rest of the room. Shared looks of concern were thrown across the room to each other as Naomi stared at the paper. Mikoto and Kusanagi both stared at Naomi, looking for any type of reaction. Ever since they saw the message, random scenarios of how Naomi would react ran through their heads but not one of them resulted in her being benign to it.

"Nao-chan?" Tatara gently cooed at the zoned out girl. All she could think about was her time there, and the repeated words of "this gang has numerous buildings and hideouts" rings in her head. Her hands clench slightly before releasing. She blinks twice before making eye contact with Tatara.

"Oh" is all she manages to say before clearing her throat. "Well good luck. Do you know what it may mean?"

Kusanagi double takes at her bravery and ability to ignore her obvious feelings of fear but nevertheless, answers her.

"Well obviously it's a warning: they're planning something and want us to know they have the upper hand. We don't know what it is or whether it'll be on that day or what time. There are so many unanswered questions which is why they are ahead of the game. So we are trying to track down any kind of information"

Naomi nods as she slowly takes in all what he said. They're planning something else. All she wants to do at that exact moment and run, scream and cry but at that point, she's too scared to do any of it in fear of being found by them.

Instead, she takes a bite of her rice ball to show everyone that she's fine even if she's not. The last thing she wants is for everyone to act like they're walking on eggshells when they're around her again.

"Hm. I wish I knew anything but the only I would possibly know is that they have more branches of the same gang. I don't know where or how many but someone told me while I was there" Naomi responds.