Kenta

Almost twelve months happened since the day Haruka Tenoh had reappeared in our life. First, I had some mixed feelings; I used to own her. Not really her, but her family patrimony.

It had been an exciting business that one, it might not have seemed like it, but it presented the opportunity of getting acquainted with one of my most profitable partners, and if the rumors about that girl were true, I could have won a nice hotel and a good portion of treasured land.

The rumors were partially true: she was bold, brave, stubborn and passionate in whatever she liked. She learned fast and excelled in all she was taught. Her math was flawless and rapid… and it was also true that she could be thunderous about her position. What I didn't expect, was that she would be tenacious enough, or that she would have grit enough to survive a whole year without doing what her father forbidden her to do and that wasn't part of the rumors.

But then, once the promised year had passed, once I got used to having her around, once my business needed her bright ideas or even her crazy ones. Once her stubbornness was accounted for, and her bold comments were expected. Once that her way to make you understand her position and somehow, make clients bend to her way… then, she came to me and told me she wanted to finish the deal.

There wasn't anything I could do to keep her around more than an offer for a higher position and more money. When I did it, she shook no with her head, a sad smile on her face and then, she managed what a small group of people has ever managed to do… she surprised me.

She went beyond the contract and paid for what the real debt was, I thought it was funny, that she managed somehow to win enough money in the year to pay me a sum that was large enough to be a challenging feature.

Then she spoke, I still remember her face, the way she commanded herself at that meeting and I remember how impressed I was with her words. I still can remember that cold as ice stare she gave to me when she told me:

"You might think that, as a woman, I can be bought and I can be sell. That I can be used as a trade coin to get rid of when the time comes. I can't accept that. I am a woman. However, I am My Own person. I do not belong to someone else than me.

I can't be bought.

I can't be sold.

The Tenoh family had a debt with you, and I was taught one should always honor its family name. I honor mine, therefore here's the check to cover the original debt plus a year for interest that I took the liberty to calculate the average percentage you would normally use for such kind of business. I feel the need to let you know that this money doesn't come from you, I came with it to your house, but as a person who keeps its word, even when it was a forced word, I needed to finish the deal as it was signed.

Sincerely, Kenta, I hope that this at least proof to you that I might be a woman, but women are human beings with a brain we can use to master your own game.

I do have to thank you, Kenta Oki, forth you gave me a house and food, and because I came young and inexperienced and thanks to this deal I got more than I bargained for. I'm smart enough to know that the experience that I've won over this business is more than I could have gotten if I was not part of it and probably one of the things that kept me from bringing this check more than once before.

I also have to thank you, because you've made me smarter, stronger and colder… now I can take this knowledge and create my own future as I always wanted to.

Hopefully, after today karma doesn't come to bite you or me in the ass since all this cycle was productive and came to a right end.

I'm moving out today" Then she turned around and left.

I remember that day vividly, and I memorized her speech word by word without really knowing why it had affected me so bad. But when a year passed by and I forgot about her until someone asked me if I knew something of her whereabouts, then I was sure karma had passed its chance to take me down. The moment I saw her looking at Michiru at my own party, I knew.

You'll see karma is wise and always wins, it has a way make to make us pay, I always knew that. However, I never expected this circle to actually turn. Then, it did, and I was shocked when the reality of knowing that Haruka Tenoh would be karma's face for me hit me like a ton of bricks.

I should have known better. I should have known that all circles turn.

At that party, she looked like a boy… no, actually she looked like a cosmopolitan man. She talked with my guest about business, impressing each and every one of them since her opinions were something that could come only from an experienced person.

'You made me smarter, stronger and colder' she once told me, I snorted back then at that comment, but I saw it then, and I could see it clearly now. The naive and somewhat not business prepared girl I met all those years ago was no more, and I had a lot to do with it. That much was noticeable when she quoted the words I would often use to refer to a project without a future.

"Don't do business if you don't know the foreseeable future. Unless you expect a miracle to happen and let me tell you, miracles and business shouldn't go together in the same sentence," I gulped that night when she looked straight into my eyes when she said it to my guests. Now, I know I had all the reasons in the world to be threatened by such veiled menace.

That night, she and Michiru didn't talk much, but we shared a good amount of time in the group she was at first, and then we crossed paths in other groups later on as well. Most of the time, the conversations on those groups were business related and had me wondering how on earth that girl knew so much if she supposedly was with her head in the track 90% of the time. That should have been a subtle signal of the lengths of her knowledge and added to her looks, her ability to deceive and outsmart anyone should have been easily read, but it was a party, and I didn't take much out of it. How wrong was I.

That night also had finally brought the press out of our lives. I couldn't be happier, not that they would follow me much, but I really don't like the idea of Michiru being caught doing something that could affect my reputation. Nor I wanted them publishing out about Ishi Moriyama and her involvement with me. That could have complicated things even more.

Then, three weeks passed by and we didn't need to be worried about one Haruka Tenoh anymore, the championship was over, and she was out to her next racing event. I was so happy, I wouldn't need to cross paths again with her, and I could rest assured that karma wouldn't act.

But seeing this, I was a fool.

Now I can see clearly that they were in touch all this time. Now I see that Michiru not once looked less happy than before she met her. She didn't get back to that gloomy state she was under the months previous to Haruka's first appearance.

I don't know how or where, nor did I know the reason behind the mild depression Michiru was before her. I can recognize to myself I was afraid to ask. I was scared to know if she knew about Ishi. Don't get me wrong, I love Michiru, but there never was passion between us. She was a beautiful young girl who blossomed into an even more beautiful woman who I love very much. However, no matter how much I love her, no matter how "wife material" she was, how lovely or how intelligent or cultured… she wasn't the company for me; we never understood each other, we were a friendly couple who had marital encounters every once in a while. I knew she was passionate; I heard her play. But that passion was never directed towards me nor would I be able to return it.

I know now that she did, that she knew about Ishi. I'm as certain of that as I am that the 'great racer Haruka Tenoh' was a female all her life.

I take another cup of sake to cleanse my mind or to make me bolder; I'm not too sure to which one I'm more directed.

I should have known it was her behind this all those months ago. I should have known when a few hours after her departure passed by and the first manila envelope found its way into my hands.

I can believe how fool I was. I can't believe how well I was played. I drop the papers over my desk, the contents of the folder spilling widely over it. I fall to my chair and fumble to open my drawer just to take a good look at the mess that had been brewing for the past months and that I, couldn't find a way to fix it nor the culprit of the outcome.

I open my desk drawer to find pictures of Ishi alone, Ishi and I in a variety of no so compromising to very compromising situations, along with bills from restaurants, hotels, and travels a proof of piling debt being accumulated in those twelve months.

And now this… I think watching the mess that I've just created. One page caught my attention. In the middle of contracts and bills and pictures, the white page stared at me, its words burning a fire in the pit of my stomach.

Just free her, and I'll let you walk.

I'm not dumb to pretend I don't know who is the note talking and if I was… well, the attached documents were very clear in pointing that Michiru was the target. See, I might not love her as I am supposed to, I might not love her as I love Ishi. However, I am still a man who doesn't take well-being threatened, who doesn't like to give up on its possessions. Michiru might not be a thing, but she certainly is Mine. She is MY wife, and I intend to keep it like that as long as I can.

All of the sudden, an idea comes to my mind. I can avoid the smirk that's forming on my face when I recall I still have one more As under my sleeve, and that I.. I am still in possession of proof of Haruka Tenoh gender, and if she hasn't changed much and her career is still more important than anything else…

Then I got her in my hands, and she won't see this one coming.

Karma might be a bitch, Tenoh.. but it comes for all.

I pick up the phone and mark the well-known numbers…

"Moriyama" her voice comes softly

"Ishi, it's me… I have a front page news for you."

"Kenta? What are you talking about?"

"How much chaos would be raised if you have proof that one well-known racer is, in fact, a female?" I smirk to the phone, and she gasps.

"Tell me more…"

"I'll see you at our meeting point at 19hs."

"Bring the proofs," she says, and she hangs the call. I smile to myself then I get up of my chair and move to get ready for my encounter with Ishi.

"Karma can have your face for me, Tenoh. But I'll make sure that it has my face for you."

A\N: Sorry for all the time you waited for this one, I wasn't planning on having a Kenta POV in the middle of this. However, he decided that he wouldn't let me keep writing if I didn't give him a chapter. So, there it is.. now I can keep going.

Hope you enjoyed it :)