Lucy was humming to herself as she made breakfast. The panic and terror she'd felt yesterday was a thing of the past. She had withstood the interrogation and the barrage of questions from Kouta's father and fooled him. Oh it hadn't gone perfectly, the whole thing with the pictures still worried her a little, but the important thing was that he had accepted her as more or less, 'normal.' Just so long as she didn't come off as too strange he would be willing to accept her as Kouta's special friend. She was sure that in time she would be able to win him over too. After all, even if he was just a stupid human he was Kouta's father. Having him approve of her would make everything else easier.
XXXXXXXXXX
By the time Kouta and his father finally came down breakfast was ready and on the table. The three of them sat down and began to eat. As they were enjoying their morning meal Kouta's father looked at her and asked something in a friendly tone.
"I notice that you always seem to have a hat on, even indoors. Is there some reason for that?"
"I just really like to wear hats," Lucy replied casually.
"I see."
XXXXXXXXXX
Following their meal Kouta and his father gathered their things to go.
"Kouta," his father said. "I want to talk to Lucy alone for a moment. Would you mind waiting for me outside?"
"Sure, dad," Kouta answered. "Bye Lucy, I'll see you later."
"Ah, bye," Lucy answered feeling a bit nervous. Why does he want to talk to me alone? As soon as Kouta was gone she saw the man's face become much more serious.
He did not waste time and got right to the point. "I am afraid I can't allow Kouta to come here anymore, at least not unsupervised."
"What? Bu… but why?" What happened? Things had seemed fine. Why can't I just be with Kouta? All I want is to be with Kouta!
"To be honest Lucy I am a bit concerned with your situation. No child your age should be living all alone unsupervised. Truthfully I can't imagine what sort of parent would permit it, regardless of circumstances."
"I can take care of myself," she said a little angrily.
"That does seem to be true, but it shouldn't be." He looked very solemn. "I am considering contacting child services to look into your situation."
She felt an icy chill grab her heart. Inside her head there was a mocking little laugh. I told you to kill him. The voice whispered and then faded away. Of all the terrors she was forced to live with her worst one was drawing the attention of the police. Criminal and perverts she could deal with. If things became messy she could hop on a train and disappear. But if the police realized what she was there would be nowhere in Japan for her to hide. They would search for her nationwide. More importantly, if she became a known criminal she would never be able to be with Kouta. Getting in trouble with one branch of the government, like child services, was a short step away from getting in trouble with another.
"Please don't do that sir," she said imploringly. "My father would be very, very upset."
He frowned at her. "This father, the one who never arrives and who you don't even have a photograph of. Is he really a finance consultant with Shirayuki Industries?"
"Of course he is!" She declared. "He is a very rich and very important man and he would be very upset if child services were to become involved. I am sure my father would not be very forgiving if he were to be embarrassed like that."
"You shouldn't try and intimidate me." He said sharply.
She was glad her little veiled threat hadn't gone unnoticed. "I would never do that sir," she bowed very low to him. "But my father can be very harsh with those who cause him embarrassment. And I know having me become involved with child services would embarrass him greatly. I would not want you to suddenly find yourself unemployed and blacklisted."
He stared at the polite little girl. What she had just described was every businessman's worst nightmare. In Japanese society, and especially in the Japanese business world, face or reputation was everything. It was hardly unheard of for powerful men to ruin those who had insulted them. Having someone fired and then unable to find work was a very real threat.
He knew that he was a valuable employee, and that he had a good chance at continued promotion within his company. He worked very hard and was good at what he did. But there were a hundred more just like him just within the company. He was hardly irreplaceable. He could easily imagine a high level executive at Shirayuki calling a fellow executive at his company and then arranging to ruin him over some drinks and light conversation.
Of course that was only if this person existed.
He had serious doubts that Lucy had such a father. He just could not imagine a high powered executive being so reckless with his own daughter as to leave her unattended for weeks on end. He also found it hard to believe that any child wouldn't have at least one picture of her father with her.
And yet…
This house, the gifts, the money had to come from somewhere didn't it? Even if she was some kind of heiress she wouldn't just be allowed to go off on her own and spend a small fortune without anyone noticing. Someone had to be responsible for her. She had to be getting the money from somewhere. What if by some bizarre chance she really did have rich and powerful father? It just didn't seem likely, but it wasn't totally impossible either.
"When is this father of yours supposed to arrive?" He asked her.
"Friday," she answered swiftly. "My father will most definitely arrive here Friday."
"Are you sure?" he asked a bit cynically. "Perhaps he will suddenly have to take care of some new business and be delayed again."
Lucy shook her head violently. "No sir, my father will definitely be here this Friday."
"Fine then, let's all have dinner together this Friday night. So long as I meet your father everything will be fine. But should he not arrive for some reason…"
"I understand," Lucy bowed once more. "I am sure he will be here."
He nodded, more or less satisfied with the arrangement. He really didn't want to call child services. Truthfully he'd just been hoping to scare Lucy away from his son. "Until then I suppose you can still come over to play with Kouta under my supervision or that of my brother's. But I don't want him coming over here alone anymore."
"I understand," she said quietly. You've ruined everything you stupid human! I hate you! "Is it all right for me to come over to play later this afternoon?"
"That will be fine," he said graciously.
XXXXXXXXXX
As soon as Kouta's hateful father left she went upstairs to change. She put on her finest dress and a stylish blue beret. She put on some expensive black shoes and black stockings. She was dressed up to the nines with her very best clothing. She needed to look the part of a rich girl.
She left her house and set off to find herself a father.
XXXXXXXXXX
She was getting upset with the lack of candidates. If she'd been in Tokyo or Yokohama there would have been plenty of poor people to choose from. But Kamakura was a little college town. There didn't seem to be many homeless, and the few she did spot were either women or men far too old to play her father. Her lack of success was really starting to make her angry. All she needed was someone of the right age who she could coach into becoming her father for just one night. And the person had to be poor enough to agree with no questions asked. And it wasn't like she could go around posting flyers. If she started asking a bunch of people to pretend to be her dad news might somehow get back to Kouta's father. Worse, the authorities might hear about it. She just needed to find the right person and convince him.
She was walking past some restaurants when a door in an alleyway opened. A man in a dirty white apron came out with a couple bags of trash. He tossed them into a bin and then turned back to the door. She almost didn't see him. But just as he was opening the door she spotted his face. It was a good looking middle aged face. Definitely a face that would look good in a suit. But more importantly he had fiery red hair like hers. Red hair was unusual in Japan. Seeing it would immediately make a tie between them seem much more believable.
"Hey! You!" She shouted and hurried into the alley.
The man halted and looked at her in surprise. "Yeah? What do you want kid?"
The second she heard his lazy rude tone she disliked him. She could already tell he was an even more worthless human than most. But she could put up with that for a week. She smiled up at him and pulled put the leather purse she had with her. "Excuse me sir, how much do you make in a year?"
"How the fuck is that any business of yours?" He said in an annoyed voice.
Despite the man's unbelievable rudeness she continued to smile up at him. "I would like to hire you sir."
He snorted a laugh. "You want to hire me? Get the hell out of here brat."
She pulled out a thick wad of noted and showed them to him. "I'm very serious sir."
The money got his attention. Catching her off guard smacked her with his hand and knocked her down. He grabbed the money from her and started run away.
It had been a very long time since anyone had managed to lay a hand on her. Lying in the filth of the alley way she sent out a vector. "Hey!" The vector grabbed one of his legs and tripped him violently causing him to fall flat on his face. He lost the money he'd been holding and it flew all over the alley. As he tried to get up a brick slammed into the back of his skull and he collapsed unconscious.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Wake up Mizuto."
"What the fuck?" He had the taste of dirt in his mouth and a throbbing in the back of his skull. As he opened his eyes he saw he was lying in the alley behind the restaurant. In front of him was a very angry little girl. It took him a second to see what she was holding in her hands. "Hey, give me my wallet you fucking brat."
She looked at him with such murderous rage that he was scared for a second. Then he reminded himself that she was just a little girl.
"Sure, after all it's empty." she tossed the worn wallet at him. "But I think I'll keep this." he watched as she casually put his driver's license in her purse. "I know your name is Mizuto. Normally I would have killed you for hitting me, but I was serious when I said I wanted to hire you."
"Forget it, I got a job." With his head hurting he got up slowly.
"Not anymore you don't," Lucy said pleasantly. "Your boss came out here looking for you. I told him you tried to rob me and that I was going to call the police. I don't think he wants you now."
"You bitch!" Without warning something seemed to punch him in the chest and he fell down painfully.
"Don't talk to me like that ever again," she said coldly. "I don't like people insulting me, especially not worthless scum like you."
He looked at her from the ground, rubbing his chest. "What hit me?"
"I punched your with my hand," she said with a straight face as she held up her little fist. "Was I too fast for you to see?"
He stared at the strange little rich girl. "Whatever," he struggled back up to his feet. "I'm out of here."
"If you try and leave I really will call the police and tell them you robbed me. Since I have your driver's license and know where you used to work it shouldn't take them too long to find you."
He stopped moving and looked sullenly at the little girl. "I'm sorry I hit you o.k.? I saw all that cash and went crazy there."
"What you mean is that you're a lying thieving piece of crap and you just did what you always did," she still sounded polite. "I know your kind."
"O.k. what the hell do you want?"
"Like I said before, I want to hire you. How much did you used to make in year working here."
Mizuto thought for a second to get the amount and then double it. "I would have made about three million yen."
She knew he was lying but didn't care enough to negotiate. "Fine, I'll pay you that for just one week of your time. If you help me I'll not only pay you I won't call the police. If you don't want to work for me I'll call them right now."
She was blackmailing him and offering to pay him a ton of cash. "Just what the fuck do you want me to do?"
"Not much," she said. "Just pretends to be my dad for one night."
