Time and again my father left without a word.
But words came in the form of hints. A wet letter in the stream with my name written in plain glitter on it, a blood-stained hospital blanket in my mailbox, the police cooped up in their little unsuspecting van parked next to my apartment block twenty-four-seven, a boyfriend suddenly motivated to crowd my house with out-of-season Valentine's Day gifts. The latter was rare though. All my relationships were nurtured through small talk and an overdose of makeup. After all, how can you calmly date the daughter of a criminal?
He was gone again, leaving me with nothing but a deadly weapon and the police on my tail more actively than any other watching session. His enemies were next, but if I always disregarded that because I knew that if I didn't know anything, they couldn't do anything. But not all of my dad's foes were brainless hooligans who carried bats and blades with them everywhere.
"We are here to interrogate you."
"You get prettier every time I see you, Kiku."
"That's because you rarely see me, Otosan."
"Your father, Yamamoto Honda is on the run."
"I want to see you grow up."
"He is wanted in seventeen countries."
"Otosan, I got an A for my spelling test today!"
"You're a good girl, Kiku."
"Your father is a criminal."
…a criminal?
"So, will you help us?"
"Ms Honda, how is it like to have the police on your tail everyday?"
"Ms Honda, we would appreciate your help in our investigation very much."
"Ms Honda, we need an answer now!"
"Ms Honda!"
"Honda Kiku!"
"Ms Honda!"
Otosan…where are you?
Otosan…
Otosan!
"Otosan!"
"Ms Honda! Finally, you're awake! You must be having a nightmare." Lisa, Kiku's personal servant said worriedly as she placed her hand on the rich girl's forehead. "You're burning up. I think you better skip classes today."
Twenty-year-old Honda Kiku struggled to sit up despite her pale skin and her dangerously high body temperature. The same nightmare recurred almost every night and it would give her headaches or fevers whenever she awoke. She stayed at home for more than half a week and it was always because of some ailment caused by the nightmare or that the police were watching her too closely. Because of her father's crimes, she had a home tutor and everything she needed from the outdoors to be indoors. For classes that she couldn't get from her home tutor, she had to struggle between two big bodyguards for a ten-minute walk to the private university.
"I can't skip classes today. Tamara-san will be unhappy." Tamara-san was Kiku's lady governess. The busy woman was the replacement for her father when he was gone, her late mother, her personal assistant, sometimes her maid and at other times her teacher.
"I already told her. We took your temperature while you were still asleep. It was near forty degrees Celsius."
"How did she react?"
"She just sighed. But she said you need to have plenty of rest…because…"
"Because what?" Kiku raised a brow.
"I think it's better if you ask Ms Tamara by yourself…"
"Lisa!"
"Okay, okay…" Lisa said in an apologetic tone. Her voice got softer as she continued. "Mr Carriedo called you this morning."
"Mr Carriedo? Antonio Fernandez Carriedo?" Lisa nodded. "What the hell would he want?"
"He says his wedding invitations to Tokyo had a little mailing problem, so he decided to inform his Japanese guests via phone calls. Please don't get mad."
Mr Carriedo. Antonio Fernandez Carriedo. He worked for Kiku's father for more than ten years, so much that Kiku almost believed the rumors that her father was gay for him. He left quite recently, a year ago, which was the last time Kiku saw her father in person and the last time she had to beg her hospital friends to keep his admission from the police due to a heart attack. The Hondas and the Spanish traitor (according to her father) no longer had anything to do with each other.
"I see. You may leave now." Kiku said as she tried to fight her fatigue from the fever to get out of bed. Once Lisa left, she locked the door and obstructed it with furniture heavy enough to block it and light enough for her to move. It wasn't the first time she had done that. Truth to be told, she hated Tamara. She opened the balcony door and turned off the air conditioning that was making her sicker. No surprise, there were a few police vans disguised as ordinary vans parked in the driveway. She imagined one of them talking into a walkie-talkie, reporting that she had just woken up. Then they would report that she went to the bathroom. The first Tamara would do was give Kiku a hard slap on the face that spoke the words, "How could you do something so stupid?!" and then close all the windows and door and draw all the curtains. In Kiku's opinion, the only stupid thing that she has ever done was to hide herself from the world.
Feeling rebellious and the need to find something to get her mind off her fever, she took her own cellphone out from the safe in her closet. It was the only phone that Tamara didn't deactivate in the entire house. Kiku used it to try and contact her dad whenever she wasn't allowed to, but to no avail. She groaned at the number of contacts she had in her phone. How many contacts would you find in a normal twenty-year-old's phone? A normal twenty-year-old who went to a public university, who didn't have an annoying bitch of a lady governess or even had a lady governess for that matter, whose father wasn't wanted in seventeen countries. The contacts in Kiku's phone only consisted of emergency numbers that Tamara had put in there before Tamara tried to confiscate the device, several old numbers of her father and one very special number. The number belonged to her only true friend who dared to give his number away to the daughter of FBI's most wanted.
Feliciano Vargas. He was a hot Italian exchange student from her high school who luckily for Kiku, had her as a buddy during his time in Tokyo. Feliciano was only liked for his looks, but he was a loser. A ditzy, clueless loser. Although everyone believed that his IQ could never go over 85, Kiku had other thoughts in mind. He was never just a happy-go-lucky with no good grades and a very vulnerable social standing.
"Feli?" Kiku managed, her cold sweat gathering on the screen of the phone as her eyes shifted to one of the police vans.
"Mr Vargas is busy now. Who is this?" The man on the other line sounded menacing. Although his words were meant to be polite but his tone sounded like he was going to shoot Kiku.
"Just tell him Kiku called." Kiku hung up without saying goodbye to the guy with the serial killer voice. I wonder how Feli is doing now. Since he actually has someone to take calls for him, then he must be really successful…unlike me, stuck in this hellhole. Though…I wonder where Tamara-san is. It's so unlike her to not barge into my room every morning to nag me.
Meanwhile, when Kiku was taking her morning shower, there was a call made to Britain from one of the police vans. The police van looked like a white candy van which actually is those vehicles that molesters drive. They still had to look as unsuspecting as possible. The inside of the van looked unusually bigger than the outside. There were computers everywhere; it was almost like a moving mini office. "I want to speak to Agent K."
The phone was transferred to another line in the office of the best agent in the SIS, Agent K. He received training since he graduated from high school and in five years, he became the face of MI6 and the envy of all the other agents in the service, especially the ones near retirement who never got that title despite training for much longer than him. "Arthur Kirkland speaking."
"Sir, the bait has got a catch."
The blonde immediately knew what the agent in Tokyo was talking about. He quickly switched on his computer and connected it to the cameras installed in Kiku's room. His eyebrows twitched when he noticed nobody was in the room. "Who is it?" He asked, even though he already assumed she must be meeting her wanted father.
"Feliciano Vargas. Male, Italian, twenty this year, unemployed, jailed twice for three months for each term, was an exchange student at Ouran Private Academy (A/N: No copyright intended. I couldn't think of a name.), that must be where he met Kiku Honda."
"Kiku Honda…you cunning vixen." Arthur mumbled under his breath. Out of the blue, an urgent message popped up in the screen of the computer. The big red words could just be some other stupid case another agent could handle, but he clicked on it anyway. To his shock, it actually had something to do with the case. "Listen carefully. Kiku Honda must be using that man to distract us. She is meeting Yamamoto Honda this afternoon at the airport. Stay alert. Follow her to the airport and nab her and Honda alive when you get the chance."
"Yes, sir."
Arthur hung up and let out a sigh of relief. This case has been dragging on since before he was born and was a headache to him since he joined the service. "You're finally mine, Honda."
Please review! :D Ohohohoho…who exactly is Spain's bride-to-be? YES. BRIDE-TO-BE, NOT GROOM-TO-BE. There are yaoi couples, but NO YAOI. Because I have Hetero-ed all the yaoi. That's why there's Nyotalia. Oops. Leak too much. Thanks for reading!
