Disclaimer: I don't own Love Live!

a/n. Since there's some fics that is finished, I decided to upload this here too from tumblr. Okay so, this story will be updated weekly, so just wait every Tuesday for an update!

Thanks for the one who prompted and doing the beta for this story, chyroation! Don't worry, I'll keep doing my best with this story xD

Okay, let's get started, hope you enjoy this!


eternal oath

[ Chapter 01: The Bodyguard, and The Mistress ]


"But Papa, isn't that going a little too far–"

"Mama, please, it's for our daughter's sake." Nishikino Ekoda tilted his glasses, smiling wryly as his gaze landed elsewhere besides his wife's eyes. "Everything will be fine," he clenched his fists tightly to the point where it looked white. "I'll make sure there won't be a repeat of this." He motions to the object— rather person— that merited his undivided attention.

Beyond the huge glass of the Intensive Care Unit room laid a small, young girl with fiery red hair, hooked up to several sophisticated machines. Her face was peaceful, much like a small porcelain doll, a stark comparison to the chaos that occurred not that long ago.

Nishikino Ekoda's expression went rigid and his wife knew that the decision was absolute.


"Mama, cut it out already, I'm 19! You don't need to worry about me!"

Is her usual response as she exits her house to walk to the train station. Her mother never fails to advise her to take the car (with the driver, of course) countless of times but her suggestion always falls on deaf ears thanks to her daughter's stubbornness.

Years passed, while the said girl, Nishikino Maki, is living a quiet, normal life. The life of being the up-and-coming heiress to the powerful Pharmacy company, the Nishikino co., that she will inevitably inherit it along with its countless problems and dangers.

—Which she doesn't give a single care for.

"Come back early today, okay? Papa wants you to meet someone."

Her expression sours, thinking over the possibility of that person being a suitor or a wannabee-groom that is sent to charm her into accepting their marriage proposal; the term charming would never be used to describe their attempts however, begging would be a more fitting word. She rolls her eyes, tuning out the rest of her mother's words to leave.

She is going to have an observation today with her group, for a paper admission task next week. (She hopes the observation won't take long; the area is two stations away from her home.) She usually never comes home early, rather opting to pay a quick visit to a certain book cafe or spend time in an empty coffee shop to finish her homework. Her Papa is rarely at home, so chances are she probably won't get scolded if she makes a small detour somewhere else, but her Mama will constantly contact her to know her whereabouts and what she's doing.

She mentally scowls.

Well, what protective parents they are, aren't they?

But that's to be expected, though, considering the emergency seven years ago—

Someone suddenly rushes her way, forcefully bumping her shoulder and grabbing her bag.

"—Hey, wait!"

She broke off her dazed stupor, running after the thief before he is able to escape from her sight. She yells for the snatcher to stop but to no avail. Her steps, however, are halted when a woman runs past her, jumps forward and hits the criminal's pressure point located on his neck, immobilizing him in seconds. His face kisses the stone gravel road with a loud thud and the woman holds both of his hands behind his back.

"What a shameful act," she announces. "Stealing a bag from an innocent woman is a very serious crime."

The young woman takes back the bag from the burglar's hands. She turns her to face Maki and, for a second, the serene gaze of amber meets her own astonished lavender.

Something feels different, the warm smile fully capturing her attention before she realizes that she has yet recover her stolen item.

"Is this yours?" she confirms, handing the bag back to the red head with a kind smile.

"Y-yes, umm, thank—"

Loud cheering and applause suddenly erupts from the passerbys, startling them both. Maki looks at the crowd in awe before her eyes settle back to her savior. She can faintly see a tint of crimson in the latter's cheeks, the "hero's" attention fully on the apparently, very interesting ground.

"U-Umi-chan! You ran too fast!" An orange-haired young woman bumps into the two, breaking the awkward silence. "That was so cool, though!"

"S-stop that, Honoka." the blue-haired woman's face is as bright as a tomato now.

Maki interrupts, bowing to the woman. "Thank you very much for your help!"

"N-no! It-It was nothing, really." the woman denies, hands up in protest.

"Then if you excuse me..."


"Really, that was awesome! As expected from the heir of the Sonoda dojo!"

"Honoka, will you please cut it out already!"

"Umi-chan, Honoka-chan … good grief you guys ran too fast."

A grey-haired woman joins the two, the crowd having dispersed and the unconscious perpetrator now in police custody. Sonoda Umi sighs as Honoka praises her nonstop and somehow successfully drags Kotori into it as well as they walk back to the shop they were in moments ago.

Before start of the whole debacle, Kotori was in the middle of handing Umi her order, new clothes her friend asked her to tailor for a special occasion. However, the atmosphere changed when Honoka suddenly witnessed the crime unfold right outside the shop's doors— someone stole that woman's bag! Out of the blue, Umi was already out, chasing after the snatcher in record time while the two remaining ladies attempt to run after their blue haired friend, albeit slower.

"Why don't you try on the clothes first, Umi-chan?" Kotori offers. "It'll be good if you wore it to today's meeting with your father's colleague."

"Umi-chan will work at a faraway place and forget us," Honoka whimpers, imitating a dramatic sob. "This is our final time together so let's make it last." More dramatic crying.

"Honoka, please," Umi resists her overwhelming urge to chop the orange-haired girl, rather hard in fact. "It's more like… a mission than a regular job."

"Mission? Come to think of it you haven't told us what you're even doing!" the tailor put her middle finger on her chin in a thoughtful manner.

"Well, uh..."


"… And so, I hired a bodyguard for you."

Maki chokes on her own tea after hearing the bombshell of a news. A bodyguard?!

"Papa? Come again?" her brows crinkle.

"Maki, please, it's for your own good." the head of the Nishikino family shot a stern look. "It's important for us to not have a repeat of that incident."

"Papa, it has been seven years now," Maki subconsciously does her signature hair twirl. "I-It's not like I'm that fragile—"

Nishikino Ekoda gives her another blank look and Maki straightens up. "Look, I'm doing this to ensure your safety. Your mother and I worry a lot about our little girl," the girl averts her gaze from her father to the plush rug, face beet red with shyness. "So … please endure it, at least for now. If you dislike the bodyguard, then I'll search for another." He gives her one of those rare, reassuring smiles that silences immediately.

She slowly nods. She would never disobey her Papa, anyway.


Umi explains, rather animatically, about her designed 'mission' or so she called it.

Both Honoka and Kotori, being her childhood friends, already know that Umi had undergone strict training below her father that range from martial arts, kendo, and kyuudo. As well as learning traditional Japanese dance, calligraphy, and ikebana from her mother—she is trained to be a very strong, very graceful and very polite young Japanese woman. In short anyone can say that she is the personification of her name, in one instance she can be calm and peaceful like the morning sea but in a second she can easily become a deadly and dangerous storm that can put the strongest men on their knees. When Umi finished her training in donning the katana, her father told her that she will be enlisted as a bodyguard, similar to what other family branch kids had done. Her mother was against it at first, considering that she is a woman and not a male like the other children, but her father assured her that it will be a good way to hone her skills and practice outside the dojo.

So the moment, her father's colleague, a man from a big company, asked him for a more qualified bodyguard, her chose his own daughter to be the one most fit for that role.

Out of all her relatives from another branch family, she was elected. Of course she was shocked at first, since she believed that her sword-technique was no match for her other male siblings, but accepted the decision nonetheless.

Honoka stares in awe while Kotori openly gapes.

"That's the reason you want me to make these clothes?"

"Yes. Father told me that a butler suit will suffice since his colleague's family is quite…" her voice dies midway. "Uhhm, anyways, that's all."

"Umi, a combat butler," Honoka whispers. "That's … just … wow."


Maki read said bodyguard's ability and skills. Martial arts, weapon-wielding abilities, and all other merits. Basically, her father is choosing quite a talented person to guard her, probably like a modern day samurai or something. But from analyzing the description, a gruesome, stern-looking bodyguard came to mind, making her shudder from fright.

Hopefully he's not some kind of muscular bouncer, she mentally notes. Or I wouldn't stand a day.

Flipping to the second page, a soft knock is heard on the door.

"Come in, Sonoda-kun."

The red-haired young lady pauses as her eyes land on a familiar figure, dressed in a black suit with a matching black tie, as well as black pants and pure white gloves to complete the outfit, a traditional butler's outfit, in fact. Everything about her is dark, all except those amber orbs that never ceases to shine. Her midnight-colored hair that was once tied when they first met, now flowing gracefully over her shoulder.

"My name is Sonoda Umi," she speaks politely as she lowers herself, bowing to the woman before her. "I'll be your bodyguard from now on, pleased to be by your side Nishikino-sama."

Her words get caught when their eyes meet for a second time.

"… Huh, you're from this morning, if I'm not mistaken?"

Oh no, Papa's session of questions is waiting for me later.


"What's wrong, Nishikino-sama?"

After the introductions were over, Maki noticed that the woman seemed to follow behind her silently, keeping a respectable distance from her charge wherever goes. From her behavior she's more like a humble butler, than an intimidating bodyguard.

"Err, could you please at least call me by my first name?"

"It's impolite for me to do such things," she rejects, completely serious. "I'll stick with Nishikino-sama."

"Uhh, okay …?"

"Or perhaps, Nishikino-ojousama?"

"What is that?! I-I don't get it! D-Do whatever you wish!"

She hid her embarrassment by walking faster, hoping that her day will return to normal. At least as normal as it can be when you have a person following you around everywhere like a lost puppy.

Or so she hopes.

[ ]