"I don't know, Satoru," she shrugged sympathetically, "maybe because I could see curses and that's why they saw me as the devil's work? I don't know."
Devil's work... How I had hated such people beyond words. Just because they hadn't believed that there had been those among us who could be curse wizards and Jujuzists. With their helicopter behavior, they could have done a lot of damage, which was not apparent in Mayu, at least not yet.
She seemed to have a very strong sense of maturity and did not see this behavior as right or acceptable.
"Were friends allowed to visit you or vice versa?" I asked, clearly chilled, although I really had to be careful not to sound too patronizing.
"Yes and no. It was more of a whim. If I was good, kind and did what I was told, I was allowed to visit a friend on Wednesdays or invite her over. Although that was also rather difficult. I only had two friends with whom I got on very well. As I mentioned before, I was considered weird. It's difficult for a child to be around normal people who can't understand that I was afraid of something invisible. I confided in one of the two girls at the time, who thought it was cool and weird at first, but the older we got, the weirder it seemed to her and she eventually turned away from me."
"I know that all too well. People prefer to keep quiet about it because others can't handle it and finding someone like-minded has proved difficult."
She nodded in confirmation, a melancholy veil covering her face. If only there had been a chance for us to meet back then, she wouldn't have been completely alone with this shit.
"And your current relationship with your parents? Sorry, but I can't for the life of me imagine that it can be even remotely good."
"You're absolutely right about that. I can't even describe it as difficult. Tense is still too gentle and loving is completely out of place. Back then, I wanted to get out of that literal hell as quickly as possible and moved out of home when I was sixteen. Against my parents' wishes, of course, but what was keeping me at home? I could do anything because I was pushed into everything and so I got my way for the first time and left."
"Probably the best decision you could have made," I remarked sympathetically.
"For me in any case. I could put my hand in the fire that it was the same for them. I mean, who likes to have the devil's work in their hallowed halls?" she said with a grin, which at least made me smile.
Over the family revelations, more and more of these doubting spirits jumped off my shoulder until only a few remained seated. I understood, however, that she could identify slightly with me and that Mayu certainly had no bad intentions behind her questions.
"... If you have such a strained relationship, when was the last time you heard each other?"
As if she had seen a cursed ghost, she opened her eyes wide, immediately reached for her handbag, dug out her cell phone and hunted down the last call entry.
"Oh no, that was two days ago. So I'll have to talk to them again tomorrow, the day after tomorrow at the latest," she moaned and looked up at the ceiling.
Despite the fact that it wasn't my parents, I felt exactly the same emotion as her. I would have been just as reluctant to call them or even visit them. Speaking of visiting.
"And when was the last time you saw each other?"
She exhaled with both melancholy and disapproval and rubbed her face with difficulty.
"Six months ago for my birthday and Christmas. That was the condition for me being allowed to move out so early. So I have to... visit her every six months. Have to visit. No, wait a minute. Shit! So, yes, around Christmas, but that was more than half a year ago," she looked at me from a startled mirror, "oh fuck. So I'll have to show up again soon, otherwise I'll have to listen to them again. Not that I have to anyway, but even more so now."
The move to us had really messed her up, hadn't it? God, poor thing. Couldn't I have taken that off her hands?
"I'll come with you!" I suggested, and within the blink of an eye she looked at me, perplexed.