Sorry for the wait! I was actually going to wait a little longer before updating this chapter, but it took me a month just to finish this chapter, and I wanted to get a couple more in before I go off to college soon. I made a few changes to the plot line, so hopefully it'll be more interesting. I've been really lazy with writing (or doing anything in general). It's summer, and it's 100 plus degrees outside, and all I ever feel like doing now is sleeping. Plus I was super stressed waiting for AP scores to be released (thank god it's my last year dealing with those). I'll probably end up having a heart attack waiting for my MCAT scores. Anyway, enough rambling. I don't know if anyone actually reads my author's notes (I personally like reading other people's).
Hikiri: You're sweet. I know you do, otherwise you wouldn't have stuck with me through all my other stories. =)
Aogetsu: I'm sorry it's a tragedy. I feel like tragedies are the only things I'm capable of writing haha. Her name's pronounced Kirie (I know they probably didn't name their kids Kyrie back then, considering it's a biblical name and all, but I really liked it, and I wanted to use it =P )
gozita444: I was originally going to make the prologue a lot longer, and build their relationship a bit more, but for some reason (even unknown to me) I decided not to. I actually really like Satomi too. I was trying to create someone really detestable, but I ended up liking him after I finished the chapter haha. Thanks!
Ainhoa11: Thank you! I hope you enjoy this one too!
Ayu-chan Yoshizawa Ayumu: Thanks! Don't worry, it's still ongoing.
Louve: Thank you so much! It's always great to see people from other countries enjoying my stories! I hope you enjoy reading this one!
Reviews are very much appreciated! Thanks to all those who followed and favorited as well!
Chapter 2
"Shit, I'm going to be late!" The young girl threw the covers aside and scrambled out of bed, realizing that she only had fifteen minutes before the first bell rang. She quickly tugged on her uniform and ran a brush haphazardly through her long, black mane of hair. After shoving a toothbrush in her mouth and deeming her teeth clean, she leapt down the stairs two at a time. "Mom!" She whined. "Why didn't you wake me up?!"
The aging woman looked back at her daughter with a raised eyebrow. "Didn't you say you were an adult? Adults don't need anyone to wake them up." She turned her attention back to the kitchen counter.
"But mom, what if I'm late?"
"Then that's your own fault, isn't it? Hang on a second, your toast is almost ready."
The girl leaned against the dining table and turned on the radio nearby to listen to the news as she waited.
"Last night, in the Shinjuku ward, a shooting between local gangs resulted in three confirmed deaths and eight others injured. The Fujiwara faction and the Oogami faction-"
"Your toast is done." Her mother shot a dirty look at the radio and sighed. "It's dangerous out there. Be careful."
She pushed away from the table and grabbed the toast. "Yeah mom, I know. It's not like this isn't a daily occurrence."
"Well, it can never hurt to be too careful." Her mother followed her to the front door and watched as she pulled on her brown, leather loafers.
"Yeah, alright." The girl pushed the door open.
"Oh also, Kyrie, come home right after school. Your father's returning from his business trip today." Her mother called after her.
"Alright!" Kyrie shouted over her shoulder. She sprinted down the sidewalk to the large intersection several blocks away. The large, morning sun peeked out over the tops of the large skyscrapers flanking both sides of the street. As she took a bite out of her toast, she pulled out her cell phone. Five minutes to get to school. She snorted confidently. "I can do this." She jumped as her phone vibrated with an incoming text.
'Where are you?' It read. 'School's about to start.' The crowd of people around her surged forward and Kyrie glanced up to see that the light had turned from red to green. Taking another large bite of her toast, she stuffed the phone back into the pocket of dark-blue blazer without bothering to respond to the message, and flew across the crosswalk to school.
The chimes of the school bell sounded as she stuffed her loafers in the shoe locker and slipped on her school slippers. Taking the stairs two at a time she threw open the back door to her first classroom and crossed the threshold just as the last note of the bell began to die away. "Safe!" She cried. She heard snorts of laughter from her peers.
The door in the front opened and a fairly young woman walked in. "Tsukino-san, next time I won't let you off so easily if I catch you running in the hallways again." She warned with a hint of wry humor in her voice.
"Yes, I'm sorry." She muttered apologetically, bowing slightly.
"Go sit down. I need to call roll." The teacher put her books down on the podium in the front of the classroom as Kyrie slipped into her seat next to the window. She droned a dutiful "here" as her name was called and then slipped into a silent lull.
She felt a smarting throb on her forehead as her reverie was broken. Crying out in pain, she saw a piece of chalk roll off her desk and fall with a clack onto the floor. "Ow, what the heck?!" She grumbled loudly, rubbing the sore spot.
"I'm glad you're with us now." The teacher in the front of the room tossed another piece of chalk up and down with an arched eyebrow. Her lips curled. "Now that I have your attention, why don't you pick up that piece of chalk next to your desk, come up here and solve this question for us?" She pointed at the math equation on the board.
"But sensei!" Kyrie protested.
"Now." The teacher ordered sweetly, her eyes narrowing. The girl groaned, bending down to pick up the chalk that had fallen onto the ground. She stood in front of the chalkboard and stared at the equation blankly. Seconds seemed to drag on for minutes. Finally the teacher sniffed. "I'll give you a hint: integration by parts."
Kyrie gave her a dubious look. "Sensei, no one even knows what that means!"
"You would if you had been paying attention in class."
"I do pay attention!"
"Oh really now?" The teacher's pencil-thin eyebrows shot up to her hairline. "Then I guess you just forgot everything after I taught it." Her tongue darted out to wet her lips. "I was being lenient yesterday and didn't assign the homework that I had originally planned, but it seems like that was a bad mistake. Tsukino-san, tomorrow, I expect you to turn in not only tonight's homework, but also last night's homework as well."
"Sensei!"
"Should I add more?"
"No, I'm sorry." She bowed her head.
"Sit." Kyrie begrudgingly did as she was told. She forced herself to sit through the remainder of her classes so that the incident didn't repeat itself again. Finally the lunch bell rang and she jumped out of her seat and headed for the hallway.
"Kyrie, where are you going?" One of her friends caught her before she left.
"I have to go buy some bread from the cafeteria before they're all out. I left my bento at home."
"Alright, come back quickly!"
"I will." She raced through the hallway and pushed through the dense crowed of people buying bread until she had elbowed her way to the front. "One melon bread, and one custard bread please." Kyrie waited until the aging lady had handed her the bread before squeezing back through the bodies and heading back to the classroom. Once there, she pulled up a chair to her friend's desk. "Momoka, Rei, It feels like I have such bad luck today." She complained to her two closest companions.
"For real." Momoka agreed, swallowing her mouthful of rice. "You almost come in late, then you get called out during math class, and then, the teacher piles on extra homework for you tonight."
"I don't envy you." Rei nodded. "Did you get my text this morning?"
"Yeah, I didn't have time to reply though. Anyway, what was with that question the teacher had me do on the chalkboard?" Kyrie asked, angrily tearing open the plastic wrap containing her melon bread. "Integrate arctan(x)?" She snorted. "Who the hell knows how to do something like that anyway?"
"Well, the teacher did teach us how to do that question yesterday during class. It was part of the notes." Rei pointed out. "You just weren't paying attention."
"Wait, what? She did?" Kyrie gapped at her.
"Yeah." Momoka grinned. "Not that any of us know how to do it either. You really saved all of us today, Kyrie."
"You guys are so mean!" Kyrie scowled. "And you call yourself my friends."
They laughed. "Oh hey, that's right." Rei glanced at the other two. "What do you guys think about going to karaoke tonight? I'll gather up some other people. It's good to have fun once in awhile."
"Sure, I'll go." Momoka smiled at the thought.
"Karaoke?" Kyrie asked. "I want to go!"
"You sure about that Kyrie?" Momoka looked uncertain. "Don't you have extra homework to do tonight?"
She shook her head. "Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it." Then she remembered what her mother had told her this morning. "Oh, actually never mind. You're right, Momoka. I can't go. My dad's coming back from his business trip today so I need to get home early." She sighed.
"It's okay." Rei reached over and patted her shoulder. "You can come next time."
She sighed again. "Yeah, for sure. Man, what a bummer. What an awful day."
Finally the final bell rang. "I'll see you tomorrow!" Kyrie threw a goodbye to her friends over her shoulder before heading to the shoe lockers to exchange her slippers for her brown, leather loafers. She took her time walking down to the intersection, enjoying the feeling of being outside. It was March. The sun was large and bright in the sky. Even though the temperature was pleasant, she could still feel the lingering traces of winter in the air.
The light changed and Kyrie stepped forward onto the crosswalk. As she neared the halfway mark, she noticed a striking young man with sandy-brown hair and vivid, forest-green eyes. He was dressed smartly in a black suit and a black tie. There was a playful and flirtatious air about him, but his eyes were serious. She was so entranced by him that she barely noticed a man, several paces behind him, pull out a gun and point it directly at the sandy-haired man. The glint of the sunlight on the dark metal made Kyrie focus on it, and her amber eyes widened as his finger moved to pull the trigger. She threw herself at the green-eyed man and pulled him sideways, just as a loud bang rang out. Thrown off balance by his weight, she stumbled.
"Dammit!" She heard the green-eyed man curse before she felt the impact of her head against the asphalt, and then everything went dark.
Soft voices drifted into her consciousness. "Just a minor concussion. She'll be fine. I've called her parents. They're on the way." The door opened and closed, the doctor's footsteps dying away.
"Where were your guards?" A soft voice asked sternly.
"I dismissed them for the day."
"Why? You know how dangerous it is to wander around by yourself."
"It's so stuffy being with them all the time."
"Yes, and now look at the consequences."
"I get it, Hajime-kun, okay? Besides, I could have taken care of him myself. I didn't need her to save me." There was silence and then a sigh. "Don't worry, I'll take responsibility for it."
"Alright Souji, I'll hold you to your word." Expensive sounding shoes tapped against the linoleum floor. The door opened again, and the person Souji was talking to exited the room.
The sound of footsteps grew louder. "Get up. I know you're awake."
Kyrie opened her eyes to see the green-eyed man standing over her. She pushed herself up so that she was sitting with her back leaning against the headboard. "Hey." She greeted. "So what happened to the guy who was trying to kill you?"
"I took care of him easily. He was an amateur." He sat down on the stool next to her bed. "Now then, I have some things I need to discuss with you, but first things first." He held out his right hand. "I'm Okita Souji."
She took his hand. "Tsukino Kyrie." She paused. "Hang on a second, Okita Souji? I've heard that name before on the radio, several times."
Okita smiled tightly. "Yes, I suspect you have. Now then, now that we have all that introduction crap out of the way, do you have any idea what you have done?" He leaned forward, his eyes blazing.
Kyrie glared back at him. "I saved your sorry ass: that's what I did. Why? Do you have a problem with that?"
"Yes actually I do." He hissed. "You saved me, and I thank you for that, not that I needed any saving. I knew he was behind me, and I knew what he was going to do, but that's not the problem. You've just opened up a Pandora's box."
"I don't see why that should concern you." She lifted her chin up indignantly. "You're the leader of a mafia group right? One of the most powerful ones in Japan. Shouldn't you be used to dealing with this stuff? And in any case, it's your own fault for wandering about without your bodyguards. If you had them with you, you wouldn't be in this situation right now."
"I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about you, idiot."
"What?"
"Now all my enemies will think you're with me, and attack you. And believe me, I have a lot of enemies."
"I can deal with them." She stated confidently.
"Deal with the mafia? You'd end up dead after they've tortured you for a while."
"Then what do you propose?" Her amber eyes narrowed.
Okita stood up and offered her his hand again. "Come with you. You're parents will be protected as well."
She scoffed. "Join the mafia to escape the mafia?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
"No, but I'd rather not join the mafia if I can help it, so I decline." She pushed his hand away.
He smirked. "A foolish decision." His head turned slightly at the sound of a commotion outside the room. He bent down, scribbled something on the pad sitting on the nightstand next to her bed, ripped the top sheet off and handed it to her. "My phone number in case you change your mind." She took it. He raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "It looks like your parents are here." He said as the door burst open.
"Kyrie!" Her mother cried, running to her bedside. "Are you okay?!"
"I'm fine mom." She reassured.
Her father turned to Okita and bowed. "Thank you for looking after my daughter, I'm sorry if she's caused you any trouble."
"Dad!" Kyrie shouted, gaping in shock at him.
Okita laughed. "No, no, I should be the one thanking her for saving me. But she does have an impressive mouth."
Her father gasped. "Did she say anything rude to you?"
"Not at all." He replied smoothly, walking to the door. On his way out, he looked back over his shoulder and winked at her.
A week passed since Kyrie's encounter with Okita. "I guess he was just trying to scare me." She thought as she waved a cheerful goodbye to her friends before heading back home. "But what if what he said was true?" She argued with herself as she climbed the stairs to her apartment on the second floor. She shook her head. "No, no. Something would have happened by now." She reasoned. Pushing the door open, she shouted a greeting to her parents, but no one answered. "How strange." She glanced down and saw two pairs of shoes in the entryway which meant that both her mother and her father were home, but why was no one answering? She cautiously made her way into the living room and stopped short, her eyes widening. In front of the coffee table, her parents were kneeling on the floor, trembling, and their eyes wide with fear. Their ankles were bound and wrists were tied behind their backs with ropes. A gag prevented them from speaking. Behind them stood two men in black suits – each pointing a pistol at her parents' heads. Several more men in suits flanked the walls of the living room.
Her eyes, dilated with terror, traveled to an attractive man lounging comfortably on her sofa. His face was thin and angular, but his lips were full. His wavy fringe was styled so that it covered the left half of his face, leaving one coal-black eye to peep out between the long bangs. He stood up and tossed his hair back to reveal a long scar going straight through his left eyelid, from his thin eyebrows to the top of his cheek bones. He smiled coldly at her. "You're finally home. I was getting impatient, wondering how long I'd have to wait."
"W-who are you?" She asked, her voice wavering slightly. Her fingers balled into fists as she gathered her courage.
"Fujiwara Satomi. Leader of the Fujiwara faction."
"Let my parents go." Kyrie noted that she sounded more confident than she actually felt.
He shook his head and chuckled. "Unfortunately that'll be impossible. I need something to bargain with." He approached Kyrie, only stopping when he was right in front of her. Leaning down, he tilted his head so that his lips were barely grazing her ear. "Now then, how does this sound? Tell me where Okita Souji is, and I'll let your parents go."
She moved to step back, but he grabbed her shoulders, preventing her from moving even an inch away. "I don't know. I don't know anything about him."
His tongue clicked. "That won't do. Lying to me isn't going to help anything at all."
"It's the truth. I only met him for the first time a week ago when I saved him."
Satomi sighed. "Don't lie. No one in their right mind would save a stranger."
"Then you're wrong. Even a child has more morals than you. Haven't you ever heard of noblesse oblige? Even though I'm just a normal person, if someone's in trouble, shouldn't I help them if it's within my power?"
His face contorted with rage as he backhanded her. "You sure have guts, talking back to me. I don't need a lecture on morals from you." He snarled. "Hurry up and tell me where I can find Okita Souji. I'm getting impatient here."
Kyrie pressed a hand to her throbbing cheek. "I told you – I met him for the first time last week. I haven't seen him, talked to him, or heard from him since."
Satomi glared at her through narrowed eyes. "Then I guess the lives of your parents don't mean much to you." He raised his hand, ready to signal their execution. "I'm giving one last chance. Tell me where he is!"
"Right here." A voice behind her rang out loudly. Okita stepped forward into the light of the living room. He smiled mockingly at Satomi. "I figured something like this would happen."
Satomi's lips curled in triumph. "You finally show your face to save a mere girl." He reached inside the jacket of his black, three-piece suit and pulled out a sleek, onyx-colored pistol. He cocked it and pointed it directly at Okita's head.
Okita shrugged good-naturedly. "Well I do need to repay my debt to her. It's a pretty hefty one too." He didn't seem bothered at all by the weapon of destruction pointed at him. "Well then, shall we end this farce now?"
The black-haired man laughed once, amusement sparkling in his eyes. "You plan to take me and my men on all by yourself?"
An eyebrow arched over a forest-green eye. "Not at all." He clapped twice, the sound reverberating sharply in the small room. Suddenly, all the men in the room, including the two behind her parents raised their guns and pointed them at Satomi.
"What is the meaning of this?" He hissed. The tables were turned now, and Satomi knew it.
Okita reached out and grabbed the frame of the pistol. He stepped forward, pushing the barrel aside. "What a pity. You can't even differentiate between your men and mine. And I thought you were smarter than that." He sighed dramatically. "It just goes to show that even I can be wrong." He turned his back to the man, obviously belittling him. "I want him alive." He nodded to the men flanking the walls. The struggle was over in less than a minute, and Satomi was detained with his cheek pressed against the wooden floor. Okita knelt down and cut the ropes binding Kyrie's parents with a small knife he had pulled from his pocket. Then he stood up and strutted to her. He held out his right hand. "My offer still stands you know. I'll protect you and your parents." He said with a small, arrogant smile. Kyrie's light-brown eyes locked his green ones in a long, hard stare before reluctantly extending her right hand and taking his.
