Chapter 7: Reunion

The Story so far: After Kuon's fit of rage left him in an uncertain situation, Ren only had one question. "What is going to happen to me Doctor?"

Disclaimer: I do not own Skip Beat or any of its characters… But you all knew that anyways.

*Side note: This particular chapter may be pushing the line between T and M rating. I had to make up a couple of details of Kuon's dark past.


Tuesday afternoon on the set of Tragic Marker, 2 1/2 hours after 'the incident'...

"Setsuka." Director Konoe called through the door of the wardrobe trailer. "Your phone is ringing." Before he even finished speaking a slender hand reached out of the door and snatched the phone from his grasp.

"Yeah?" Setsuka asked in a disinterested voice in English.

"Is this Setsuka Heel?" A polite male voice on the other end of the line questioned.

"Yeah it is. Why do you care?"

"You were listed as an emergency contact for one Hizuri Kuon. It says here that you are his sister. Is that correct?"

"Yeah. That's me." Setsuka responded casually. Hizuri Kuon? That is Father's son. Kyoko thought to herself as she hid in Setsuka's shell. Why is Cain using another alias? Everyone on set already knows he is in the hospital. And why would he pick that? His selection of name just didn't make sense to Kyoko. Hizuri Kuon was the son of her mentor Hizuri Kuu. On request she had at one time even acted out the part of young Kuon for her mentor and been informally adopted by the world class actor. Ever since she had called him Father and he had called her Son.

"There has been an incident involving your brother. His physical health is fine but we'd like for you to come to the hospital as soon as possible."

"I'll be there in 30 minutes." She hung up the phone without another word. Ren?! You told me you were alright. What happened?


Back in Doctor Kei's office, 3 hours after 'the incident'…

"What is going to happen to me Doctor?" Ren asked in a detached voice.

A knock sounded on the heavy door, cutting off the doctor's response. Only a split second later it started to open and was roughly stopped as a man squawked in the hallway. "You can't just walk in like that!"

"You said my brother was in there. Are you not going to let me see him?" Setsuka's heated voice demanded through the crack in the door.

Doctor Kei watched with interest as the young man lounging in the corner of her office seemed to stop breathing at the sound of the woman's voice. A moment later he took another breath and swallowed as if his mouth were suddenly dry. It was the most normal thing the doctor had seen him do since 'the incident'. For that brief moment he was a man again instead of an actor. Then that glimmer of humanity was gone again behind the actor's painfully professional smile.

The doctor tried and failed to suppress the shudder that ran through her body in response to that smile. The smile was exactly the same as the one he wore when first arriving at the hospital, at the time it hadn't bothered Doctor Kei at all. Now however, it was disturbing how real the fake smile seemed to be. She could even sense the orderlies around her starting to relax in the man's presence. Even after the incident he managed to put them at ease. Of course they hadn't been in the community room. Until someone had experienced it firsthand there was no way to comprehend what true terror felt like... Or what it meant that the man in the corner could induce it.

"It's alright we were the ones who invited her to come see her brother." The doctor said without taking her eyes off of Ren. "Come on in Miss Heel."

Glaring towards the man that had dared to stop her initial advance, Setsuka stepped through the door. Her eyes swept over the small room at a sedate pace as if she were looking for something, but was in no hurry to find it. "Where is my brother?" She asked the doctor after completing her survey of the room.

The doctor found herself turning towards the teen without intending to. What does she mean by "Where is her brother?" He's right there. The young woman just looked back at the doctor with an unimpressed expression. Her body language clearly said she didn't care about the man in the corner; it was as if he didn't even exist in her eyes. Confused, Doctor Kei shifted her attention back to Ren as he sat quietly in the corner, making no move in interact with the woman who had just entered. Do I know her from somewhere?

It wasn't that Ren had decided not to act. It was more an issue of all intellectual processes coming to a complete halt in his head the moment Kyoko entered the room. It had only been 2 weeks, but to him it felt like years since he has seen her. It had been far too long since she lit up his world with her presence. The sensation was like being welcomed into a warm cabin after trudging through the frozen tundra for days; her warmth was pure ecstasy, but the abrupt change left him disoriented. Had he been saved? Or was his subconscious protecting him as he froze to death alone in the unforgiving wilderness?

Ren's thoughts were disjointed as his brain resumed normal operations. Am I hallucinating? That is Kyoko standing right there isn't it? What is she doing here? How did she get in? She wasn't supposed to be here until tomorrow. And is she wearing my coat? No I'm definitely hallucinating. Ren's brain experienced another temporary shutdown as something much lower in his body tried to correct his thinking. The redirection of blood flow let him know quite clearly that she was really here and regardless of the situation he wanted her. With the small amount of awareness Ren had left he called out to Kuon. Kuon however, still wasn't listening, engrossed in his self-torture.

"Is Hizuri Kuon not your brother?" The doctor questioned as she looked back at Setsuka.

Setsuka sighed and replied in a tone that indicated that the information should have been common knowledge. "No. He isn't. Kuon Hizuri is my Father's other son. My brother is Cain Heel. And that guy in the corner is Ren Tsuruga." Inside Kyoko cringed as she said Ren's name using the western name order and left off the honorific. "How could you have gotten them confused? My brother is way cooler than either of those other two."

Ren's professional smile got a little brighter and he looked almost proud. He knew exactly how hard it was for Kyoko to speak disrespectfully of others, especially him. Inside their head the silent film rolling in front of Kuon came to a stuttering halt. Did Kyoko just say my name? Did I really just hear her say Kuon Hizuri?

"Does it really matter if we are blood related?" Ren asked Doctor Kei while she considered Setsuka's explanation of their relationship.

"It doesn't have to be by blood, but given the situation we would not have asked her to come if we realized she wasn't family." The doctor answered. She was about to continue and ask if they actually shared the same father when Ren spoke up.

"In that case." He said as his posture changed. His shoulders drooped and his slouch became more defined as he shifted forward on the chair. He rolled his neck as if it was stiff and his dark hair fell into his face. Beneath the veil of hair, his eyes darkened. As he looked up the orderlies all stiffened in response. Cain Heel had made his entrance.

"Brother!" Setsuka purred happily as she started walking towards him. An orderly grabbed her shoulder out of concern and she turned on the man. He dropped his hand as she whirled, but Setsuka did seem to care. "Let go of me! What is wrong with you people?! How come no one will let me see my brother?!"

"Setsu." Cain's deep voice came from behind her. "Let the man do his job."

Setsuka pouted as she looked back over her shoulder at her brother.

He hadn't moved. He looked like Cain. He sounded like Cain. But neither Setsuka nor Kyoko really believed that the man in the corner was really in the act. If he was, he would have been halfway across the room, threating the orderly for being so bold as to touch his precious little sister. "Are you sick or something?" Setsuka asked.

"Somehow you always see right through me don't you?" Ren's words were delivered in Cain's voice and Kyoko paused.

It was really strange. Kyoko had seen Ren break character before, but he had never failed to get all the way into character before. Kyoko watched as Ren's shell started to crumble. He couldn't act out Cain and deal with his internal turmoil at the same time. To anyone else it was probably imperceptible, but to Kyoko the slight inconsistencies in Cain made it clear that something was terribly wrong with Ren.

"Tsuruga-senpai?" She asked hesitantly as Setsuka left her body. Turning her head back towards the orderly who had held her in place she addressed the man with pleading eyes. "I'm terribly sorry about the disturbance. And I'm sorry about lying to you about being his sister, but… I needed to see him. I need to see him."

Doctor Kei was perplexed. The entire situation was too strange for her with her already frayed nerves. She had dealt with dissociative identity disorders (multiple personalities) before, but the personalities tend not to be so aware of each other. From her point of view Kuon was just Kuon. He didn't complain of memory loss and he seemed to be making conscious decisions to change his behavior. The diagnosis didn't fit, but the doctor was having a hard time coming up with any other reasonable alternatives.

And then there was the young woman in the trench coat. She had just transformed into a different person too. While the Setsuka had claimed to have no relation to Tsuruga Ren, the second woman clearly knew and cared about him. Had the man and the woman been feeding each other's delusions? But if they had, how was it that they were both responsive to the other's needs? The doctor had seen Kuon transform into... what was it Cain Heel? Because the Setsuka would only acknowledge her brother. Then something in their conversation had resulted in the woman's personality change to accommodate Kuon. Doctor Kei was out of her depth.

"Mogami-san? You needed to see me?" Ren's voice was hesitant as it poured from Cain's throat. Kuon… She needed to see us.

I heard her. Kuon spoke from inside his self-constructed prison.

She says she needs to see us even though we're in the same room. It means she knows Kuon. Or she at least senses it somehow.

Knows what?

Knows that you're missing.

I always hide behind your mask. How could she possibly know?

I've never been a good enough actor to hide you from her eyes. From the rest of the world, but never her.

I'm afraid I'll hurt her. Scare her away forever. And that would be the end of us wouldn't it? You'd join me here in the darkness... Or would you simply cease to exist... I wonder... You always seemed fragile Ren. Like I used to be.

Kuon... if you are going to abandon her you should at least tell her yourself.

I can't Ren.

I won't tell her for you. You love her enough to sacrifice yourself for her. So you know how much it will hurt her to lose you. Even if she never loves us back; she considers us her friend. It would devastate her and you know it.

Kyoto turned to face the actor in the corner without getting any closer. He looked at her with fear in his eyes and she felt her heart breaking. He's afraid of me.

"I… I guess I should be going. I'm so sorry for interrupting Tsuruga-san." She said as she bowed. "Excuse me." A tear slid down her face as she took a step towards the door.

"Kyoko. Wait." Kuon's voice was full of desperation as he reached out for her. "Don't… leave…" Cain's presence vanished from the room as quickly as it had come, leaving nothing but a vulnerable young man in its wake.

He looked like a forlorn child and Kyoko was reminded of her own childhood. Pain crossed her face briefly as she remembered when she used to cry out for her mother. Suddenly, she knew what caused the fear in his eyes. She clasped her hands to her chest as a tremor ran through her body. The fear in his eyes was the fear of being abandoned, being discarded, being left all alone.

In front of her Kuon was withdrawing his hand and looking at the ground as if he couldn't face the rejection he expected to see on her face. In that moment Kyoko knew that if she didn't grab that hand, the man she loved would never recover.

Doctor Kei watched as the young woman reached her hand back for Kuon. The urgency in her movements made her seem clumsy, but it didn't seem to matter to either the man or woman. All that mattered was that she took his hand. As a psychiatrist, the doctor was used to being privy to peoples secrets, but it was rare even for her to witness such a private moment. It took her breath away.

Kyoko wasn't even certain how she had managed to get across the room. The only thing on her mind had been reaching his outstretched hand before he could finish pulling it away. Her right hand wrapped around his wrist as the rest of her body collapsed towards the floor. She caught her body weight on her left elbow as she fell onto her side. It hurt but not enough to break her concentration. She stared up into the blue-green eyes of the man she loved and willed him to understand. Even with colored contacts they were still his eyes and she needed him to understand. You are not alone.

Kuon stared back into Kyoko's amber eyes as a ring of warmth settled around his right wrist. She was looking at him the way she had when they were children, with adoration, with love. The kind of love he desperately wanted, but knew he didn't deserve. His heartrate quickened and he knew she felt it as his pulse pounded against her tiny hand.

Kyoko felt like her vocal cords were paralyzed. "Ren." She breathed.

Kuon shook his head and tears started to flow. "That isn't my real name."

Kyoko had known that Tsuruga Ren was a stage name for a long time, but it hardly mattered to her. It didn't change who he was. "I know."

"I've been lying to you."

"About what?"

Kuon just shook his head as he broke from her gaze.

In the back of her mind the sensation of betrayal flickered to life and Kyoko repeated herself more forcefully. "About what?"

"Who I really am." Kuon whispered.

"No you haven't." Her words confused Kuon and he found himself looking back into her sparkling golden eyes. Only now they were wet with tears of her own. "I may not know your real name, but I know you. You are Japan's greatest actor. And it's not because of your looks or your connections. It's because you love your work with all your heart. You don't play your characters. You become them and they become a part of you just like my roles do. When a job ends you feel sad for the loss of that part of you even if you didn't like the character themselves."

As Kyoko paused Kuon reached out to wipe the tears from her face. "You're moody. And you're temperamental. And you have the worst fake smile I have ever seen. But your real one is breathtaking. You can't cook at all and you have terrible eating habits. And sometimes I wonder if you'd survive without me and Yashiro around. You love to tease me even if I don't understand what you mean half the time. And you have the most annoying American shrug."

The actress sniffled as Kuon wiped another set of tears from her face. "Most people think you're kind, but they're wrong. I've seen them you know. The Emperor of the Night and the Demon Lord. You're polite, but you aren't kind. Not to people who aren't close to you anyways. And you're my friend. My very best friend after Moko-san. You're the first person I was able to talk to about Sho. And you're the good luck charm that protects me from the Beagle. You always help me when I ask. And… and…"

Kyoko couldn't quite say it as she looked into his eyes. No. Now is not the time to tell him. You need to do what is right for him. You can't tell him you love him. She gulped audibly. "And I am the luckiest girl in the world to have had you as my senpai. It doesn't matter what you real name. You're still you Ren."

"Kuon." He corrected. "My real name is Hizuri Kuon."

"Of course. Kuon." She answered as her checks flushed. Kuon absolutely beamed as he heard her say his name like it was the most natural thing in the world. Any lesser woman would have melted into a puddle on the floor when face to face with that smile. In fact sitting 6 feet away Doctor Kei did just that, her chest constricting as she struggled to get air back into her lungs. How can he be so scary one minute and mind boggling charismatic the next?

Kuon dropped his right hand to the floor and used it to support his weight as he slid off of the chair. He moved slowly so not to disturb Kyoko's hold on his wrist. His movements were almost animalistic as he placed one knee firmly on the ground before pulling his other leg across the seat of the chair and bringing the second knee to the floor. His left hand finally left the top of the chair back and he rolled the empty seat away from them. Pulling his left knee forward between his hands he sat on his left hip with his right leg trailing behind his body. It brought him even closer to the stunning amber orbs that haunted his dreams, Kyoko's beautiful soul piercing eyes.

Kyoko froze in place her heart beating wildly. She couldn't take the intensity of his gaze. What do I do? Is there something else I should say? She wasn't sure, so she said the first words that came to mind. "Did you know you're even more handsome than Corn?"

Doctor Kei sat up in alarm at hearing the young woman's words. The end of her first session with Kuon flashed though her mind. "She called me her fairy prince Corn" The doctor's eyes widened and her mind started racing in circles, trying to connect the dots. She's the girl. But he hasn't told her that he was her fairy prince. She doesn't know. A few seconds later the doctor also figured out where she had seen the woman before. She was the woman on the TV. The woman in another man's arms.

The cause of 'the incident' became very clear to Doctor Kei in that moment and she all but leapt out of her chair to drag the young woman away from Kuon. He saw a picture of her cheating on him. And now I've practically served her up on a platter. The doctor thought as she dragged the protesting teen over to the door.

"Doctor Kei?" Kuon asked as he blinked at her in confusion. "Why are you dragging Mogami-san away from me?"

"Are you not mad at her for what she did?" The doctor questioned as she looked at the passive man uncertainly. Why didn't he try to intervene?

Kyoko whined pathetically behind the doctor's back. "What did you find out about Tsuruga-senapi?"

"What should I have found out about Mogami-san?" He questioned in response.

"Um… Are you mad that I slept in your trench coat last night…? Because you told me that it was improper for me to wear clothes that a man bought… except for the things that Cain bought for Setsuka... But… I…"

Kuon could barely suppress his smile as Ren joined him in a creating an image of Kyoko sleeping in their trench coat. Although in their version she seemed to have forgotten to wear anything under the coat. She must have really missed us. They spoke in unison with matching smirks in their mind.

Did she just refer to Setsuka in the third person? The doctor wondered as she tried to piece together who the young woman behind her actually was.

"No Mogami-san. I didn't know about that. But seeing as you play Setsuka and how that is actually Cain's trench coat, I don't see any real problem."

"Oh. Then… are you mad that I took Cain's call when I was at my audition? I know I shouldn't have because the Heel siblings are supposed to be a secret. But…" Kyoko tapped her index fingers together nervously. "Murasame-san called and said you had been rushed to the hospital because you passed out on set. Then the doctor who was looking after you called to ask some questions about your medical history, but he hung up on me when he realized we weren't family… and I was really worried about you."

Kuon and Ren stared at her through the same eyes and both wondered the same thing. She was that worried about us? The next words that flowed from their mouth took both of them by surprise and neither would admit saying them aloud. "Then I suppose we should get married so we are actually family. Don't you think?"

Kyoko turned a shade of red that neither man had ever seen before as the doctor standing in front of her seemed to pale. The orderlies in the room had all moved to form a wall around Kyoko, but the doctor herself stood at the center, directly in Kuon's path.

"Tsu… Tsu.. Tsuru…" Kyoko stammered.

"Now. Now." Kuon corrected. "From here on out you may only call me Kuon. Wives don't call their husbands by their last names do they?"

Kyoko assumed he was torturing her on purpose and fell into a full bow on the floor as her typical sobbing rant began. "I'm SOOOooooOOOOoooo Sorry Tsuruga-san! I didn't mean to get in a fight with Murasame." Sob. "But he called you a coward." Sob. "And I couldn't stand to listen to him." Sob. "I'll never do it again." Sob.

"Never do what again?" Kuon questioned as the picture of Murasame holding Kyoko filled his mind. The aura of violence seemed to be building around him again and Doctor Kei suddenly regretted not locking him up when he was still acting docile. The orderlies fell back one step at a time as menace swept across the room. The only one who didn't flinch was Kyoko.

Instead she pressed her forehead to ground and went right back to apologizing. "I shouldn't have opened the door." Sob. "I knew he wanted to pick a fight with you. But you weren't there to defend yourself." Sob. "So I confronted him." Sob. "I know I shouldn't be defending your honor, but he said you were unprofessional." Sob. "So I backed him against a wall and threatened to put him in the hospital." Sniffle. "So he could tell you himself instead of relaying it through me." Sniffle. "That's what I told him." She looked up timidly through Setsuka's bleach blonde hair.

"And you thought you would do so in you underwear?" Kuon pressed as his aura intensified. He could tell she was hiding something from him.

"No… It just sort of happened." She looked ashamed as she glanced up at him with her soul piercing eyes. "I'm really sorry."

"What exactly are you sorry about?" He asked as one of the orderlies started whimpering and Doctor Kei's knees gave way.

"Um… two things. First, for being so bold as to defend your honor when you weren't around. And second…" She cringed as she finally admitted to what was bothering her the most. "I got locked out of the hotel room when I was fighting with Murasame-san and then I stood in the hallway dressed in Setsuka's nightwear until he came back with another key card."

"So nothing happened between you and Murasame? He didn't come into our room and you didn't go into his?" Kuon asked as his fury started to fade. She doesn't think she did anything inappropriate other than stand in the hallway in her underwear. She wasn't lusting after him. She was threatening him the best way Setsuka knows how, with her whole body.

"No." She responded firmly. "He offered to let me wait in his room, but I told him I wasn't going into any man's hotel room but Cain's."

"Then I suppose I don't need to kill Murasame-san." Kuon mused and Kyoko sat up to look at him over the doctor's slumped shoulders.

"Tsuruga-san." She started before he cut her off with a shake of his head. "Um… Kuon." She tried again. "You wouldn't have actually killed Murasame-san would you?" She looked at him with eyes full of unwavering faith.

Faith in what, Kuon could be quite sure. He opened his mouth to tell her that of course he wouldn't have actually hurt Murasame, but his words stuck in his throat. She has faith in me to tell her the truth. Without any regard for the others in the room, he decided to tell the love of his life the truth. As he did so he prepared for her to flee the room; to leave him alone in the hospital to rot. Like he knew he deserved.

"Yes. Mogami-san. I would have killed him." Kuon's voice grew deeper as he pulled his darkness to the surface. He smiled so wide that it seemed to split his face in half as he bared his teeth aggressively. His eyes narrowed and amusement crept into them. He delighted in the idea of beating the other actor to death with bare hands. There would be something wholly satisfy about murdering a trained fighter that way.

Behind Kyoko one of the orderlies passed out and fell unceremoniously to the floor. Neither of his companions moved to help as they stood frozen in their places by a gaze that didn't even flicker in their direction. Kuon only ever looked at Kyoko. Between them the doctor scarcely breathed as she willed herself to be invisible. She was caught in the full force of Kuon's gaze as it swept past her to the woman beyond. Doctor Kei didn't even notice his words; the thudding of her heart beat in her ears had stolen her hearing.

Confusion filled Kyoko's face. "Why?" She asked as she leaned forward onto her hands.

"Because I thought he took advantage of you Mogami-san." Kuon answered honestly as he waited for her to stagger to her feet and run. "I would have killed him because that trash thought he was good enough to touch you."

Kyoko's voice was quiet when she spoke again. "No Tsuruga-san. Why do you think you would have been able to kill him? How can you think you're capable of killing someone?"

A bitter laugh rolled off of Kuon's tongue. "You've got the wrong idea Mogami-san. I've already killed someone. I've been a killer since I was 15." Kyoko's thin frame shook as for the first time she felt truly afraid of Ren, afraid of Kuon. He watched as she swallowed nervously, her eyes growing wide as hysteria seemed to take hold. "The worst part is that he was my very best friend. He was the only person since you who looked at me as my own person."

"Since me?" Kyoko squeaked out.

Kuon had lost himself to his own self-hatred and said too much. Shit. I said that out loud.

Panic turned to horror on Kyoko's face as she realized where she had seen those blue-green eyes. They had been sitting in the perfect face of her fairy prince, Corn. Tears welled in her eyes as the Beagle's words came back to haunt her. At the time she had been sure he was wrong. He couldn't have been right. "By now, he is most likely broken, or has already left this world." That was what the lead singer of Vie Goul had said about Corn.

All of Kyoko's fear drained away as she desperately racked her brain for a way to help Corn. He was in so much pain that he couldn't tell anyone about it. "Corn." She said as her expression changed to concern.

Hearing her mispronounce his name like she had when they were children cut Kuon to his core. All he had wanted to do was protect her. And here he was ruining her fairytale. Taking her most precious memories and crushing them underfoot. He hated himself.

"Corn." Kyoko said again just a bit louder than before. "What happened to you?"

The words spilled from Kuon's mouth without thought. He needed to tell someone. No. That wasn't right. He needed to tell her; that little girl with the glowing golden eyes who made him feel worthy of love for the first time. "Growing up in my father's world wasn't easy. I know I told you as much before, but it always felt like he was looming over me. My parent's loved me but when your parents are virtual gods, you can't do anything right. If I did well it was brushed off as being inevitable. Of course I did well because I was their child. No one would expect anything else. But if I did poorly… I was the worthless child that couldn't do anything right even with my 'outstanding pedigree'. It didn't matter how hard I worked at something. If I won a competition it was always assumed to be because of my parents' connections or money. And sometimes it was even true. All thanks to my overly dotting family."

The choking fear that had saturated the room was fading and Kyoko felt compelled to go to him as he shared his pain. In her eyes the man in the corner was gone, leaving only the distraught figure of the boy who had saved her from her own sadness years ago. She rose to all fours and started to crawl around the fallen doctor as Kuon told her about what their fated meeting had meant to him. "You didn't care who my parents were. You looked at me. Just me. And then when we had to part ways you assured me that I would escape my father's shadow. You assured me I would surpass him someday."

A sad smile crossed Kuon's face. "Our meeting sustained me for a long time. But as I got older it wasn't just the adults in my life accusing me of riding my parents' coattails. It was the children at school. The strangers I met on the streets. I was a mixed blooded bastard whose only redeeming qualities were his looks and his use as a punching bag. I lost track of how many times I woke up alone in an ally covered in my own blood. I guess the thrill of beating on me only lasted as long as I was awake to experience it."

Kyoko pulled Kuon's head into her lap as she reached him. After that, Kuon's words were punctuated by sobs that shook his whole body as it lay curled around Kyoko. "One day Rick found me in another gutter. That beating had been particularly bad; for several hours I couldn't remember who I was. But it didn't matter to Rick. He took me in. He was my first friend since I first met you. He taught me how to fight and told me to stand up for myself."

"The beatings continued but I took less damage than before. Still it didn't really matter to me. I had no self-esteem. I didn't think I was worth standing up for. Then Rick started to introduce me to women. He told me that a man's real worth came from making the woman he loved happy. So I tried to make the women he set me up with happy."

Kuon's eyes glazed over as he continued his story. "That all changed right after I turned 15. It was at the end of another fight and I was already beaten and bloody. They had already pinned me to the ground and were taking turns kicking me. Then one of my attackers made the mistake of calling my girlfriend a whore… I hospitalized all 5 of them. And I enjoyed it."

Revulsion spread across his face. "I fucking enjoyed it. After that it wasn't about standing up for myself anymore. When I fought it was about inflicting as much damage as I had received over the years. I never felt as alive as when I was fighting. And then the rumor's started. In a matter of weeks I had been challenged by every street fighter in Los Angeles. And I won every time. I had become a monster. A legend. And I attracted the wrong type of attention that way."

Kuon rolled his head to look up at Kyoko. In his distress he hadn't even realized he was crying into her thigh. "The women I met always left me. They came and went from my life so fast that I never really bothered to learn anything about them before agreeing to date. I think that was where it started. With Trixie. I had known that she left her boyfriend for me, but it didn't faze me much. Even when I found out later that her boyfriend was the second strongest street fighter in the area I didn't really care. That was until he and his 3 friends ambushed me one night."

He paused as memory flowed over him in a suffocating wave. "Breathe Kuon. Breathe." Kyoko urged.

"I nearly beat them all to death that night. They had attacked me with all the weapons they could carry and I still nearly killed them with my bare hands. That was the first time I learned to differentiate between fear and real fear. Real fear is the look in someone's eyes when they realize that you are going to kill them. In that moment they realize that every new breath they take is a gift that you are giving them. Because it's only a matter of time before you decide to land the final blow that takes them from this world. After that Trixe left me and went back to her boyfriend. All along she had only wanted to make him jealous, but he never recovered."

As her breathing returned to normal and her mind forced the world back into focus, Doctor Kei was surprised to see Kuon laying in Kyoko's lap. The air seemed to have cleared and she felt no hostility from the man anymore. She glanced back at the orderlies to find one unconscious and the other two slumped against the walls as all the tension in their muscles drained away. I can't believe that no one is dead. She thought to herself as she withdrew a bit further from the couple. To have that bottled up inside of him and still have so much control…

"I never approached him again. It didn't matter to me whether he lived or died as long as he stayed the hell away from me. He couldn't take it though. Every waking moment he was looking into the shadows to see if I was coming for him. As his paranoia grew it eventually drove him to act. That night he and 8 of his closest friends confronted me. He had decided that he would rather die in an open brawl then have to continue living his waking nightmare."

Unconsciously Kuon grabbed onto Kyoko's thigh as if seeking comfort. In response she murmured soothing reassurances as she gently petted his head. It was clear that he had reached the hardest part of his story. "The fight wasn't anything special but the guy who called me out ran away in the middle and I chased after him. Rick was there as my back up and he chased me into the street where the 9th man was waiting in his car. They knew they couldn't beat me in a fight. It was all planed so that 9th man would run me down in the street. But he missed. He took Rick's life instead of mine. And I'll never forgive myself for that." Kuon's words had gotten softer as he reached the conclusion of his story. Fresh tears slid down his face as he shivered uncontrollably.

"I think Rick is probably glad he died in your place that day." Kyoko said carefully. "It sounds like all he wanted to do was protect you."

Kuon looked at her with confusion on his face. She is supposed to be terrified of me. Appalled by the murderer I am. She is supposed to blame me. His voice was barely audible when he responded. "Why aren't you afraid of me?"

Kyoko's smile lit up the entire room as she looked down at the man in her lap. "Because I know who you really are. And I know that you have never started a fight in your life." Kuon opened his mouth to protest, but she hushed him. "Defending the weak has always been part of a prince's job, Corn. You shouldn't be ashamed of protecting people. I'm sure Rick would be been proud of the man you've become. If a man's real worth is making the woman he loves happy, then I'm sure you are worth more than any other man I've ever met."

"Do I make you happy Kyoko?" Kuon asked hesitantly.

The implications went right over Kyoko's head, but it was the closest Kuon had ever come to admitting that he loved her. "Of course you do Kuon."

"And when you say I'm worth more than any other man you've ever met…" He trailed off as Kyoko nodded at him. He swallowed to clear his throat. "Does that include my father?"

Kyoko blinked at him without understanding. "Have I met your father?"

"Kyoko." He responded gently. "My family name is Hizuri. My father is Hizuri Kuu-san. The international action movie star."

"Father is your father?!" Kyoko asked in surprise. A second later she blushed at the memory of running into Ren when she was acting as a young Kuon. Kuon watched in awe as a delicate smile settled on her lips. Her expression betrayed her feelings. Even if she couldn't say it out loud, she loved the man in her arms with all her heart. He had made her love him even as she fought desperately to remove all things love from her life. "I don't know who the woman you love is Kuon. But if you make her even half as happy as you make me, you are already twice the man your father is."


Later that evening in Japan…

"President Takarada. Are you still listening?" Kyoko's voice spilled from the phone in the President's hand.

"Yes. Kyoko-chan. I'm still here." Lory answered as he leaned his forehead into the palm of his hand. Does she not understand the implications of what she just said?

On the other end of the line Kyoko fidgeted and spoke just to fill the awkward silence. "Doctor Kei has a list of doctors she would recommend if he were staying in Guam, but she didn't know who to recommend in Japan."

"And when I do need to have a doctor arranged, Kyoko?" Lory's voice was as tired as he felt after listening to her long winded explanation.

"Doctor Kei says she won't let him set foot outside of the hospital until she has spoken to his new doctor."

"By tomorrow morning then?"

"Yes. I'm terribly sorry to drop this on you without warning… It's just that we can't leave Kuon alone in the hospital any longer." Lori could almost see the polite bow through the phone as she apologized. It was very typically Kyoko.

"I understand Kyoko-chan. I'll take care of it." Lory said before hanging up the phone with a heavy sigh. So Ren needs a live in psychiatrist that he can take to work with him? Preferably one with experience working with Dissociative Identity Disorders?

Lory was half way though his second call when he realized something that made his love obsessed heart skip a beat. She called him Kuon!


A/N: Dear Readers,

For those of you who are up to date on the manga releases you probably noticed that Nakamura-sensei doesn't share my vision for the Sacred Lotus story arc. It has left me a little… um… uninspired when it comes to continuing with that particular plot element. So I'd like to ask all you wonderful readers for your opinions. Please leave me a comment or send me a PM with any input because I am honestly torn on how to continue. The way I see it I have following options:

1) I can just ignore what Nakamura-sensei is doing and keep writing the Sacred Lotus characters as I originally imagined them. (Even if it will feel like a betrayal to the Master.)

2) I can try to get Kyoko out of the role of Momiji and keep Kanae's mention about the Sacred Lotus project to a minimum to protect Kyoko's feelings. (Though this option requires me to omit a large amount of the plot I had originally outlined. Plus I have no idea how I am going to get Kyoko out of the role without it feeling unnatural. I mean she worked so hard for that role.)

3) I can bring this story to a fairly graceful close before the filming of Sacred Lotus begins. Then start working on another story that has been rattling around in my brain. Its summary would read like this: "Kyoko always wanted to play a princess. So why is she suddenly regretting the decision to take the role? It wouldn't have anything to do with acting opposed to Cain Heel would it?"

Thoughts?

Thanks for reading,

NewUserNamesAreHard

Edited: 8/20/2017