AN: I know I've focused a lot on this fic recently, but this is going to be the last chapter for a little bit whilst I work on two of my other fics: It's Just Like Magic and More Like a Phoenix. Well, unless there's an unexpected number of reviews. I hope you enjoy 😊 the ending won't be too much of a cliffhanger this time 😉
Chapter Seven – Why I'll Always Follow
Kyoko looked around at the building ahead of her. It looked like a typical office building that was several stories high and home to a lot of tech companies both the development and the selling. There were also a few stores that sold anime goods but it was where their marketing department was located. Was this really the correct address? Had the president written it down to trick her into going here?
As she took a few steps forwards, she saw a somewhat clumsy man fiddling with one of the signs outside of the building. He looked like a nice guy. Kyoko looked down at the name on the address and sighed, at least it was a company name. "Hello, excuse me, could you help me?" she asked.
As the man turned, Kyoko's eyes widened, this man looked a lot like herself. No, she was on the lookout for someone like herself and if she had to be honest, this looked like a member of Hikaru Ishibashi's family. It must just be a common look in Japan. She looked him over. He was wearing a black t-shirt of an American rock band and had a black bandanna around his forehead.
"Hello," he said before wiping the sweat from his brow, "Anything that I can – oh wow, you're the famous Kyoko right? But the last name, it doesn't…"
"Yes, my last name isn't reported in many places," Kyoko smiled. Somehow this man seemed far too harmless to be anyone important. She bowed respectfully. "I'm actually looking for something."
"Well, I'm not sure which company but I'd be happy to take you inside and show you a listing of where the different companies are," he smiled and Kyoko nodded. She had to act as if she was going to a meeting with a company. Maybe this man would show her the way to go, perhaps this wasn't going to be as hard as she thought.
"You'd really show me," she said as she watched the man put a hand in his bag and she could swear she heard the beeps of three devices. Must just be him reporting back to management on his phone. "Well thank you, I really do appreciate it," she tried to grin though her heart was determined. She was going to find the asshole that her father was and tell him how cowardly he had been.
"You seem such a nice girl and it's always worked for me in the past to help celebrities," he told her as he took off his glasses and rubbed them with a cloth. "I'm just a little bit clumsy sometimes, these get smudged all the time."
"I've heard that contacts can be hard as well," Kyoko smiled as she remembered a conversation with Kuon where he had been terrified if anything got near his eyes when they were slightly red from his first cold he had had as a couple. If the green eyes were caught on camera there would be a lot to explain.
"Yes, I don't feel like I need to wear them," the man smiled as Kyoko entered the building with him. "So, the board is going to be right over here," he gestured as they walked down a quiet corridor. It was actually a quite pleasant walk since the man did seem rather clumsy. Kyoko closed her eyes for a moment and the man seemed to trip, she reached out to help him and found herself slammed against a wall.
What the -
"You are awfully pretty," the man said as he held Kyoko to the wall and somehow he had even more strength than Kuon did. That was terrifying knowing Kuon's skill. "I mean, I would love to take a bite out of you," he said as he pushed her into the wall and grabbed her shirt, ripping it open as Kyoko looked at him in surprise. When she had met him outside this man appeared as tame as Yashiro and now she was scared.
"Sorry," Kyoko attempted to knee him but the man pulled away, grabbing her by the hair and shoving her into a supply closet. Kyoko attempted to scream but there were two other men with him now and Kyoko could see a staircase which led into a lighted basement. What was going on here?
Kyoko felt herself lifted in the air and saw that the man who had appeared so kind and gentle wasn't holding her anymore and instead two men who had appeared from the shadows were. As she was taken down the stairs she noticed an extensive set of different weapons, she saw a chemistry station where a man was working, she saw fire and flames and she saw cages with skeletons and corpses in them.
Where was she?
"I was saying," the first man said as he sat in a chair in the middle of the room and Kyoko was forced to kneel before him, "You are awfully pretty, if only we weren't related."
Kyoko's eyes widened and before she knew it they had attached a shock collar around her throat and she was still being forced to kneel in front of him.
"You must have many questions to ask me," the man before her asked her and Kyoko stared at him. How did someone who looked like this effectively become the head of one of the branches of the Yakuza. True, the strength that he had held her with didn't match up either, but this was the scary boss?
"I don't care about those questions. I don't care about who you are or what you've done. I want to know why you hate Kuon, what has Kuon Hizuri ever done to you?" she asked and the man before her laughed.
"Nothing, that's truly the joy of it. By himself that kid may have one heck of an interesting past but he's not my target," the man said and Kyoko's eyes widened. "I mean, for the most part, his part of the story is nearly complete. Whether he died or not was going to depend on the cards that the fate played, what I was guaranteeing on was that you would be here. You would come to stand up for the one you love. Shame your mother was too spineless to do so."
Kyoko looked down, she felt herself stabbed in the heart as she thought about the man she loved more than anything. He was her prince. "So, you have me. You can leave him alone. You have me here ready to speak to you, to talk to you. Leave him alone and I'll talk."
"That will take all the fun of it away for me," her dad smiled and Kyoko could see that there was twenty years of darkness in his eyes. "You see, even though you have the dark powers that I seek, you still are not prepared to give up everything in your being. Love is such a…well it's such a frivolous emotion."
"Leave Kuon out of it and I'll say whatever you want me to say," Kyoko argued but she saw the way the man didn't look like he cared about her words.
"I want to see you again," he said, "I have a rather interesting proposition for you, but I will give you some advice. You say you love that man, that Kuon Hizuri, the man who beat up so many men in America that I was both impressed and disgusted by his twisted soul as well as his talented body. He would make a great bodyguard for myself if I used a drug that made him forget who he was. Those do exist, you know."
"Your advice?" Kyoko asked.
"Well, love, although I have great distaste for it, well it's your love that is saving him. It is my belief that without your love and your kindness, his soul would eat away at itself and he would become a twisted freak again," Kyoko flinched at those words, her own grudges starting to appear at the insult. "However, his love for you…well his love for you is what is going to be his greatest mistake so if you really want to save him, you'll make sure that he falls out of love with you."
Kyoko looked at her father. She knew that that wouldn't happen easily and she never wanted it to happen. She never wanted to see anything but love in those emerald eyes. She didn't want to never be held by him again.
"If you do that, I guess I can leave him alone," he shrugged and Kyoko took a deep breath in. Maybe it was worth hurting him now so that he wouldn't be hurt later. "I wish to speak to you tomorrow morning. Come back here at six."
Kyoko looked at him and nodded, "I will be back," she said wanting to agree to anything that would keep Kuon safe.
"I look forward to it," her father smiled at her coldly and Kyoko felt sick that she was even related to him.
…
…
As Kyoko entered the safe house, her brain was still scrambling to come up with a plan that would stop Kuon from showing that he loved her as much as he did. Maybe they could create some type of scenario that wouldn't hurt either of them too badly. She just needed to slip into the bedroom and look at him and she could decide what to do.
No such luck.
As she came into the house, she saw Kuon come over to see her with that blinding smile on his face. "You're back late," he said to her, "Did everything go alright with your work. I hate to think that I'm keeping you from -"
"I've been with Sho," she lied as Kuon looked at her confused, "He's given me a lot to think about."
"That's nice," Kuon said as he leaned down to look in her eyes and saw that she avoided eye contact with him. "I was thinking of permanently changing my hair back to blond or would that be an inconvenience for you since I'd look more like him."
"I want to be with Sho!" Kyoko said as she tried to make eye contact with him. "I don't love you, Kuon. I don't want this stupid ring," she said as she took it off her finger and threw it on the ground. Kuon looked at it and blinked.
"That's nice to hear," he continued to smile to her, acting as if what she had just said and done didn't affect him.
"It's true, I feel sick when I look at you. You're a monster, those pictures of - those pictures of when you were fifteen, they give me nightmares. I don't trust you not to turn into a mixed-breed freak." Kyoko felt her heart hurt as she said this to him. She knew he had trouble with those words but she had to use them anyway. She felt his cheek brush her hair as he leaned in again and whispered to her.
"Do I get to give you a 'no good' because you're acting isn't believable right now," he told her as Kyoko felt tears in her eyes.
"You're nothing but a murderer and I'm sick of pretending that I can even stand you because I want to use your fame and your money. You make me scared when you're around. You act as if you're a good guy but you're a freak and a murderer who killed your best friend," she said and Kuon sighed.
"Kyoko, I don't understand why you're acting this way, but I wish you luck with your acting test," he shrugged. "If I'm asleep when you are ready to come to bed, it's okay to wake me up if you want to talk. I'm always here if you want to talk about what happened tonight."
Kyoko looked at the ring on the floor and when she thought that Kuon wasn't looking, she picked it up again. She looked up to see Kuon smiling at her with an 'I told you so' expression.
"Again, you seem to need some time alone right now, but wake me up if you need to talk," he told her and Kyoko stared at the floor. Why did he always see right through her?
…..
…..
Kyoko frowned. She hadn't been successful at all with Kuon and he had even asked her if they could make breakfast together. She had fallen asleep on the sofa, but he still asked her how she had slept, he had still held her close and used his arms to keep her warm. Why did he have to love her so much?
As she knelt down in front of her father again, she challenged him with her eyes. "So, I am here in front of you," she told him as she watched the person with the chemicals seem to finish mixing something and pour it into a bottle. She wondered what it was and how much her father wanted for it, "You told me that you wanted me to complete a task for you."
"I do," the man smiled before a handsome man who looked like part of an Italian mafia family stepped out from the darkness. "I'm trying to build a bigger family. You will marry Gieuseppe Donatello,"
"I am pleased to meet you, Mogami-san," the man said with a Tokyo accent as he bowed like a prince to her.
Kyoko scoffed at this and she had a fire burning in her eyes. "You already acknowledged my love for Kuon Hizuri. I'm not going to marry another man whilst Kuon exists. Even in the spiritual realm, my heart belongs to -"
"You should stop now, my sons have something to show you," the man said and Kyoko heard a thud and someone yelling and struggling against five men. Kyoko's eyes widened to see the brunette there with his gorgeous emerald eyes.
"Kuon!" she yelled seeing the bruises on his body as well as the cuts and other wounds, some of them would most definitely leave scars. "Kuon!" She turned to her father, wide-eyed, "Leave him alone! He hasn't done anything to you!" she screamed as she saw him attempting to push through. He looked drained of energy but he still struggled enough for them to try to taser him to stop him from moving.
He couldn't get up, the wounds were too much.
She watched desperately as one of the men got up, picked up a chain, and whipped him over the spine with it. He fell to the ground and Kyoko tried to rush over to him. Her grudges appearing.
Why was he here? Well, she knew the answer. She knew that she had acted strangely the previous night. She knew that he loved her enough to want to protect her from all of the dangers in the world. He managed to use his teeth to rip the cloth from off of his face and looked her way.
There was so much damage, so much pain that he was trying to endure.
"Kyoko! Don't worry about me! Know that I love you! I'll always love you! I'm so sorry, my princess," he said.
"He's awfully loyal to follow you here," her father laughed, "almost like your own little puppy dog, following you so obediently. Of course, soon you'll see him the way that I see this murderous creep."
Kyoko felt a couple of hands force her down and she knew that even with all of her anger fueling her, she wouldn't be able to get to him. As she was pushed onto the ground, she saw the man who had been at the lab table stand up and walk over to the man she already felt was her husband. She watched as his mouth was pried open and he was forced to swallow whatever poison was in that bottle.
"KUUUONN!" she screamed desperately before something happened to him that seemed as if it would only happen in a supernatural fantasy novel, the type that included exploding werewolves and sparkly vampires.
"What are you doing to him!?" Kyoko asked her father desperately, tears clouding her vision. "What are you doing to his body!?"
End of Chapter Seven
So, I had to go ahead and add some fantasy elements in somewhere. I hope you're not too disappointed and thank you for reading.
Thank you reviewers of Chapter Six
Kris, ktoll9, and paulagato
