FINDING FUAFO

"Oh, come on!" Jaita threw her eyes up and let out a frustrated sigh. "You don't have to get angry. It's just a suggestion, I'm not saying that is what it is. No need for the rain."

"I'm not the one. Rain falls naturally too," Yuki replied.

"Okay, so what are we going to do now?" Jaita asked after a brief pause.

"About what?"

"You said you don't know your in-law's name and what she looks like, where are we going to start from then?"

"Let's start with Fuafo first. You're the one bothered about that woman. I don't see how she could be of any help in finding Fuafo," Yuki replied tersely.

"I'm telling you, sooner or later, we would need to find her..."

"Of course I would definitely find her! Pfft! My whole purpose is to teach that woman a terrible lesson!" Yuki seethed, her voice low and threatening. Her eyes blazed with unrestrained indignation, brows furrowed in a deep scowl. Pressing her lips into a tight, thin line, she shook her head in disgust as her mind raced through her brother's unjust demise.

Jaita, who had been watching Yuki from the corner of her eye, turned, her gaze locking onto hers. A furrowed brow creased her face. "That woman... Is she human?"

Yuki's eyes flashed with alarm before she swiftly composed herself. "What?" she asked, her voice light, feigning innocence. She turned to Jaita, forcing a gentle smile. "Let's continue our search of Fuafo. We can't afford to waste more time."

"That woman, is she human?' Jaita pressed, her eyes narrowing.

Yuki's defenses faltered under her intense gaze, leaving her momentarily stunned. "Look," she said, clearing her throat as she regained her composure. "We refer to our kind as male and female too. It doesn't matter if we're not humans," she defended, a hint of wariness creeping into her voice.

"Ok, let's find Fuafo first," Jaita shrugged. "It's not like I won't know the full story later on," she smirked and turned towards the map.

She stared at the exquisite map, her mind blank. Finding Fuafo seemed impossible, and the map's intricate symbols might as well have been gibberish.

Worse still, she couldn't decipher any clues; if the owner of the map couldn't even locate the man with it, how could she with no full knowledge of the map find him?

"Ok so as I have told you before," Yuki broke the silence; "I've gone through the map, but I couldn't find anything, so the main reason I'm relating this to you is because I need your help with the world map, the map of this world," she paused letting her words sink in. "I have the globe, but I need the map and I need your help with the map, because I don't really understand the globe itself, I just use it for a different purpose."

"Ok, you're with your laptop here, and since I don't have a physical map here with me, we could just browse it out," Jaita suggested.

"Let's use your laptop then. Mine won't work on anything earth related, it's specifically made in and for Mystika," Yuki explained.

"Ah!" Jaita nodded slowly, "no wonder it did look strange," she pointed out.

"Strange?" Yuki sneered, her lips curling slightly. It was a fleeting sneer, stemming from mild annoyance rather than true anger. She wasn't pleased with Jaita's choice of words; 'Strange' didn't do justice to her treasured masterpiece. Yet, she couldn't blame Jaita who was obviously not familiar with such rare beauty.

"Uniquely strange. As in, it's strange in a beautiful way," Jaita quickly rephrased and rushed out of the parlour to get her laptop while Yuki remained indifferent, typing away on her laptop.

The rain had stopped falling heavily and it was now drizzling mildly, with the crisp air carrying the scent of wet earth and an accompanying chilly breeze. Looking at the time from the base of her laptop screen, Yuki noticed that it had been up to five minutes since Jaita left for the sitting room.

She turned towards the staircase, and raised her voice so Jaita could hear her. "Do you not have a laptop? I didn't expect you'd take this long, Jaita!"

"I'm coming!" Jaita replied and hurried downstairs with her phone and laptop in hand.

Before Yuki could say anything else, she rushed over to her seat with a very bright and beaming countenance. Setting her laptop aside, she unlocked her phone and turned it towards Yuki. "This is what was keeping me!" She squealed excitedly.

"What's that?" Yuki squinted at the video playing before her and took the phone from Jaita's hand. "A comet?" She tilted her head after realising what the fast-moving fleeting streak of golden light, in front of the screen was.

"Yes!" Jaita bobbed her head vigorously, her smile unfading.

"You were watching a video of a passing comet?"

"No!" Jaita dragged. "I was recording it from one of the windows in my room." She let out a happy sigh as she settled into her chair. "I can't believe I was so lucky this night!"

"Pfft! What's that?" Yuki scoffed; "I don't see what's so exciting about a comet," she shrugged and shoved the phone to Jaita.

"I've always wanted to see what a comet looks like in the sky with my own eyes. This is my first time and of course it's something to be...."

Yuki huffed impatiently. "Turn on your laptop, let's get down to business, you know we're leaving early for work tomorrow," she declared bluntly.

Jaita stared blankly at her before slowly turning to her computer and booting it up. Yuki was such a killjoy and there was no denying that, coupled with the fact that she had been living her life to the fullest since Yuki was not around, but now, only the thought of waking up at about 4am to prepare for work demoralised her instantly.

"Here, this is the map you're looking for," Jaita declared.

"Ok, I'm coming," Yuki replied as her fingers tapped quickly and rhythmically against the keyboard of her laptop.

"But what I don't understand is how you intend to use this map. This is a world map, not a country map. There are seven whole continents in this map with over 150 countries in total. How do you know exactly which country to search?" Jaita asked.

"Well, I guess we'll go through each country map then," Yuki shrugged.

"All countries?!" Jaita screamed as she noticed Yuki didn't look like she was joking.

"Yes, all countries," Yuki replied calmly, raising her eyebrows slightly above their position on her forehead.

"Ok, ok," Jaita began, forcing a smile on her lips. "You don't seem to understand the situation here. First of, you don't know where this Fuafo lives, so obviously, you might not be able to identify his location if you come across it. Now if we should decide to go through this world map, which would sincerely take us more than a year to really familiarise with, you might not even know if you miss his location."

"So?"

"All theeeese," Jaita dragged, as her hands briefly swept over the map and laptops on the table; "are useless. They won't take us far, in fact we won't get any result no matter how hard we work."

"What do you suggest we do then?"

"Let's find your sister in-law first. At least you're sure she lives here."

"I'm not sure, she must have fled the country after killing my brother." Yuki replied.

"That's true." Jaita nodded slowly in agreement. "We're at a dead end then."

"I personally think we should just go through the map," Yuki suggested, but Jaita was still not convinced enough.

"That is really a very unyielding process, except..." she paused, her eyes locking onto Yuki's. Yuki was smiling ferociously, and Jaita knew something had crossed her mind. Judging from Yuki's expression, they were definitely sharing the same thoughts. "How did I not think of that before!" She squealed in excitement at the little glimmer of hope that revealed itself.

"All we just need to do is find any similar name between both maps, and if we're lucky, we could find it on our first try!" Yuki proposed.

"It's only natural to start with our country, what do you think?" Jaita asked.

"Let's do it!" Yuki exclaimed with strong passion.

"Let's do it!" Jaita equally raised her fist, matching Yuki's energy.

They dived into action immediately, scanning through both maps diligently. An hour passed, two hours passed, and they were still focused on the maps. All they needed was one name that corresponded with each other on both maps. They were bent on getting the tiniest bit of information until it was half past three in the morning and they hadn't even finished with one state on the map.

"I knew this whole thing was useless," Jaita sighed disappointedly. That was the fifth time she had sighed in a row in just fifteen seconds.

"You knew?" Yuki asked in a monotone, carefully hiding her sarcasm.

"Of course!" Jaita retorted in frustration. "And on top of all that, I feel sleepy, but unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about it," she laughed halfheartedly.

"Aw, I feel bad for you. Are those dark circles under your eyes?" Yuki pointed at them quickly and returned her focus to the map.

"What have I been saying since? Yes they are dark circles! Because I need to sleep but you're depriving me of my sleep!"

"Be quiet. People are sleeping," Yuki advised.

"Exactly! Shouldn't we be doing that too? Aren't you tired already? Don't you want to sleep?" Jaita bombarded her with so many questions at once.

"Sleep? I don't sleep, so..." Yuki trailed off, leaving Jaita to figure out the rest.

"Can you just let me sleep even if it's for twenty minutes only? You know we'd soon leave for work," Jaita pleaded almost immediately. She had come to a conclusion that someone like Yuki wouldn't really need to sleep, but she on the other hand couldn't get away with not sleeping.

"We haven't achieved anything so far. I'm afraid you might not be getting any sleep till we get what we're looking for, even if it takes us months to accomplish."

"Hahaha! I know you're joking, but let me just pretend like you're serious," Jaita replied and continued studying both maps.

"Whether or not I'm joking depends on how fast it takes us to find our answer," Yuki replied. Her voice had no emotions as usual and her face equally held no expressions.

"I don't think this would work," Jaita spoke up after sometime.

"What won't work?"

"Look, let's pick out the states randomly. Going through them alphabetically is not a bad idea but what if our clue is in a state that starts with V, and we're still searching hopelessly in letter A. There are more than three states that start with A here, and we've not even finished with the first one, so I think it's..."

"Okay, I understand you," Yuki replied and stole a quick glance at her wristwatch.

"You know, you really have a knack for cutting people short in the middle of their conversation," Jaita shook her head in astonishment.

"I know," Yuki nodded in agreement; "and that's what makes me cool. Now, it's time for you to prepare for work," she announced. "And you have just thirty minutes to do so."

"I didn't get to sleep, I didn't achieve anything and I also just have thirty minutes to get ready, wow, the story of my life!" Jaita sighed dramatically and reluctantly pushed herself out of her chair.

"We have a lot to do today so don't waste our time!" Yuki called after her.

"I'm glad you called it "our time" and not "your time" this time," Jaita replied. "Did you hear that?!" she was back at the foot of the stairs, a proud smile etched on the corner of her lips; "I've always known I have a career in music. Did you hear that line I dropped just now? I'm glad you called it our time and not..."

"Twenty minutes more!" Yuki sang.

"Twenty minutes already?" Jaita hissed and set into action immediately. In about forty minutes she had finished preparing for work and had also taken her breakfast, which of course only made Yuki mad the entire time.

"Can we go now?" Yuki helplessly asked Jaita who was deliberately scraping her empty plate with her spoon. Jaita had finished eating, but was enjoying the fact that she had the power to do what she wanted at that moment, which was true but only for a short time.

"Yes, we can go now," she smiled and led the way out of the house. Since Yuki was back, she was automatically the one to drive themselves to their office. She took the car keys from Yuki who had already been dangling it before her, a few steps from the car.

"It's almost 4:30 now, I believe you would be kind enough to hurry up," Yuki said to her the moment they had settled in the car, but Jaita gave her no reply as she had other plans.

She was going to make her pay for not letting her get any amount of sleep at all despite her numerous pleas, so no matter how much she hurried her up, she was determined not to budge. 'That's what revenge is all about, she of all people should know that. After all, she is the one seeking revenge, it wouldn't hurt to give her a taste of what it feels like,' she thought to herself and nodded satisfactorily.

"Can you please drive a bit faster?" Yuki called from behind.

"What? Sorry I can't hear you," Jaita replied over the loud blast of music from the car.

"If you could please turn down the volume of the music you put on, I would appreciate it," Yuki raised her voice a little so that Jaita could hear her.

Jaita who was obviously enjoying this, obediently turned down the volume a notch and looked at her from the rearview mirror. "You were saying?"

"Please drive faster," Yuki repeated calmly.

"Well I would also love to drive fast but you see, this is the safest I can go. You know I haven't slept for a day, what if I drive so fast and in that moment I become dizzy, it could lead to a serious disaster," she paused and smiled at Yuki from the rearview mirror; "but of course, you would go unscathed and I would be the only one with a serious injury but you already made me your human acquaintance and in this human world, friends and acquaitances always make sure their partners are safe. You understand what I'm saying right?" she asked in a mocking tone and increased the volume of the upbeat music in the car before even waiting for Yuki's reply.

"But you're driving annoyingly slow," Yuki hissed in frustration at the pace at which they were going and even hissed more when she realised that her voice was being overshadowed by the loud music.

"You trying to say something?!" Jaita yelled, but Yuki simply shook her head. She'd had enough and it was now time for her to do things her own way.

She simply relaxed her back to the seat of the car, crossed her right leg over her left leg, closed her eyes and with one snap of her finger, which Jaita didn't seem to notice, the whole situation changed.