Several days have passed since Mikan saw Natsume but she didn't let it bother her that much. Her life went on as usual; she spent ample time with Hotaru, and making up for those lost months when Hotaru was gone. If she wasn't spending her time with Hotaru, she was trying to find more information on the Blood.
She was sitting in her office, her brows furrowing as she thought about the organization.
"I've known you for nearly my whole life, but I have never seen you so focused." Hotaru stated, while walking in.
Mikan made a face at Hotaru. "I can be very focused, just so you know."
Taking the empty seat beside Mikan, "What are you working on?" Hotaru asked, "The Blood thing again?"
Mikan nodded. "You've been at this for nearly a year now," Hotaru shook her head, "Are they really that exclusive that you can't find out who's in it and where they are?"
"It's not easy as making business deals, Hotaru. You can't just find anything easily."
"Touché," Hotaru agreed, "Let me help you then, what are you trying to find?"
"I have no idea actually…" Mikan admitted, "There's just so many empty pieces that I don't know where to start. The only thing I know is that every member's motive is that they have a personal vendetta. I don't even know how the members can be admitted nor do I do know how many members there are, NOR who their leader is, if they even have a leader-"
"Whoa, calm down, Mikan." Hotaru intervened, "you sound like you were going to explode there." She said laughing. "Okay, let's see… you know their motive, right?"She asked.
Mikan nodded as Hotaru took an empty paper and spare pen. "What's their motive?"
"To get revenge on whoever have killed their family or loved ones."
Hotaru scribbled that down. "Anything else?"
Mikan wondered, "There's an initiation before they are fully accepted as a member."
"An initiation?"
"It's like something to prove that they are in for the full deal, they're usually given a task and they have to complete it. In several cases before, the initiation is when they take revenge on who they had a vendetta for."
"I see…" Hotaru mused, as she wrote that down, "Anything else?"
"Nope. You would think that the people before me could have been able to investigate more thoroughly and find additional information though." Mikan sighed.
"All great things take time, Mikan. I'm sure there will be a breakthrough sooner or later." Hotaru said reassuringly.
"I hope so."
Throughout their whole conversation, neither of them noticed the stranger lingering outside the hallway.
Eric walked down the dark alley in the middle of the night, looking for someone, with only the moon as his source of light, when suddenly a hand tapped on his shoulder.
Eric spun around quickly on his heel to grasp that hand.
"That's not what gentlemen are supposed to do, Eric." The stranger said with a silvery tone.
Eric looked pleased, "Always a pleasure, Layla." He said, as he bought her hand to his lips to tenderly kiss it.
In anyone's eye, Layla was a doll. She had porcelain skin, large, clear blue eyes, with long, wavy blonde hair framing her face. However, what not a lot of people knew was her latent lust for tormenting people.
"What did you call me out for, Eric? I don't think you intended to talk about your day."
"You were always the keen one, Layla." Eric chuckled, "I need a favor."
"It depends what the favor is." She asked curiously.
"Befriend Mikan Sakura."
Layla crinkled her nose in disgust. "That bitch?" she scoffed, "Why would I want to do that? You have many people working under you, have them do it."
"Let me continue," Eric gently pressed on, "You're right, I do have many people working under me but none of them are like you. You're able to fool people into thinking that you are their friend. And I need someone like that to break Mikan Sakura."
"I don't get why you are so insistent on destroying Mikan this way. If I were you, I would just kill her." She said indifferently.
Eric shook his head, "I can't do that, and I want her to suffer. I want her to lose that bright radiance that she has around her. Then in due time, I will reveal myself to her." He paused, "So, will you join me in my plan?"
"I'll join you anytime, anywhere, Eric. You are my life." She said before pressing her lips against his.
The following morning was banal, the same routine for Mikan until she got to the office and saw Hotaru sleeping in her chair.
"Hotaru?" Mikan asked worriedly, "Why are you sleeping here?"
"Oh, I must have dozed off…" she said groggily while slowly rubbing her eyes.
Mikan looked down at the desk and saw papers sprawled around everywhere. On a piece of paper were Hotaru's scribbles with lines linking everything to each other.
"What's all this, Hotaru?"
"They're all possible occurrences that led to the development of the Blood. I looked through all the files and saw that the earliest date was sometime in 1996, so I researched all the events that happened in 1996. But I noticed a pattern, several years after that there were crimes always on the first week of the month. Also, I think that they choose their members by the social media."
"Social media?" Mikan inquired, "What do you mean?"
"If you looked at the past cases, all of them included people who were on the news because their family was included in a major killing or something."
"So then…" Mikan said slowly, "The Blood only chooses people that were affiliated in major events and then they reach out to them?"
Hotaru nodded, "That's what I think."
"Hotaru, you're a genius!" Mikan squealed, "I have to tell Tsubasa and Ruka now!"
"No, Mikan. Wait."
"Huh?"
"I think you should keep this information between us for now." Hotaru said slowly.
"Why?"
"I thought about what you said- about how this investigation has been going on for so long, but no one found any breakthroughs. And then, what I just told you shouldn't have been too hard to figure out especially with the keen minds in this department."
"What are you trying to say, Hotaru?"
"I think there may be someone in the Blood in this department."
"What?!" Mikan exclaimed, "That's impossible-"
"Think about it. There has to be someone in here that's been in this department for a long time so that they could stop any breakthroughs about the Blood."
Mikan stayed silent for a while, "That makes sense… But who would it be…"
"Who's been here the longest?"
"I'm not really sure…"
"Are there some type of documents that records everyone in the department, or like some type of yearbook?"
"I think so." Mikan said wonderingly.
"We should try to find it then." Hotaru said with a determined voice.
"You're the best, Hotaru. I could never have figured this out…" Mikan stated, shaking her head while laughing.
"I'm pretty sure you could, it's just two heads are better than one; that's all." Hotaru replied with a smile.
Both Hotaru and Mikan agreed on going home after their breakthrough. After getting off the bus, they saw that the sidewalk was flooded with people.
"Wow, there are so many people." Mikan stated, while trying to push her way through the crowd.
Hotaru crinkled her nose in disgust, "I know. I can feel the people pressing on me."
Mikan turned her head to talk animatedly to Hotaru while walking until she felt someone's body bumped onto her own.
"Oomph." Mikan exclaimed. She then looked up and saw who she bumped into. "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry. Are you okay?" she gushed worriedly.
The person smiled gently, "I'm okay, don't worry about it."
Mikan smiled back, "That's good to hear." She said before walking away.
"Did you see her, Hotaru? She was so pretty!" Mikan said.
The person watched Mikan's back as she walked away.
"I can't wait to destroy you."
A/N: Thank you to those that reviewed the story so far :) Also, if there are any questions regarding this chapter, feel free to ask! I tried my best to make it not as confusing, haha.
